


Eyes Open

by PhoenixRising



Series: Dancing Memories [1]
Category: Compilation of Final Fantasy VII, Dirge of Cerberus: Final Fantasy VII, Final Fantasy VII, Kingdom Hearts
Genre: F/M, Memory Loss
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-10-24
Updated: 2013-10-24
Packaged: 2017-12-30 09:36:47
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 10
Words: 21,844
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1017037
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/PhoenixRising/pseuds/PhoenixRising
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>After Cloud disappears while fighting Sephiroth, Tifa Aerith and Yuffie set out to find him. Along the way, memories start to surface, and a forgotten story reunites some old friends. Yuffentine, some Zerith and Cloti. Starts in Kingdom Hearts universe.<br/>Originally posted on fanfiction.net</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Hello everyone!
> 
> This story starts out in the Kingdom Hearts universe, but you don't really need to know much about KH to understand what's going on in this story. If you have questions let me know and I will answer them :)
> 
> A small part of the inspiration for this story came from the Taylor Swift song "Eyes Open" from the Hunger Games soundtrack, so that is what the lyrics are at the beginning and end of each chapter.

 

**_Everybody’s waiting_ **

**_Everybody’s watching_ **

 

_“Cloud, you’ll never let go of the darkness.”_

_“Shut up.”_

_“You’ll never let go of your past…”_

_“Shut up!”_

_Sephiroth slashed at him again with the Masamune. “Absurd. Defeating me is meaningless. You know that more than anyone, Cloud. No matter how many times I fall, your darkness keeps calling me back!”_

_“Wrong!”_

_“Tifa! Stay back!”_

_“How can I? I wanna help you.”_

_“You can’t. He’ll never let go of the darkness.” Sephiroth looked smugly at Cloud as they leapt apart again._

_“He doesn’t have to,” came Tifa’s calm reply. “He just needs someone to surround him with light.” Sephiroth swung to face her. “The darkness will be there, Sephiroth - but in a place you can’t reach.”_

_“Is that right?” he looked almost amused, “Let’s see what this light of yours can do.” Tifa rolled out of the way as he brought the Masamune down where she had been standing just a moment before. She ran towards him, aiming a punch at his face which he easily sidestepped._

_“No!” Cloud watched as they dodged each other’s blows. He managed to get between them before Sephiroth could hurt her._

_“Cloud, you can have my light.”_

_“The light doesn’t suit you,” Sephiroth readied Masamune once again._

_“I just … don’t know,” Cloud shook his head as a bright light surrounded him._

_“Stop!” Sephiroth jumped, using his wing to propel him forward._

_Cloud leapt to meet him and the two disappeared in a blinding light above._

 

_“Where’d they go?” Goofy asked as the group looked up at the empty sky. “Do you think they made it back to their own world?”_

_“They went somewhere else…” Sora answered. “Cloud went to fight a great battle - to defeat the darkness inside him.”_

_“Gone again,” Tifa sighed._

_“What will you do now?” Sora asked._

_“Hmm,” she closed her eyes and thought. “Guess I’ll keep looking.”_

_“Got any leads?”_

_“Don’t worry, light is easy to find.”_

_Sora, Donald and Goofy watched as she walked back towards town._

 

“You mean you’re gonna leave us here?!!” Yuffie cried. “C’mon! Cloud’s our friend, too!”

“I know that, Yuffie, but you’ve all been working so hard here, and there’s still a lot to do to get Radiant Garden back to the way it was,” Tifa explained. “It makes sense for me to go look for him by myself while you all keep working.”

“And wasn’t this whole Restoration Committee your idea?” Leon asked from where he was standing in the corner. 

“What does that have to do with anything?!” Yuffie glared at him. “Just because it was my idea doesn’t mean that I have to be here for it to work! You and Aerith can stay here for all I care. But I wanna go!”

“Yuffie…” the soft-spoken flower girl met the young ninja’s eyes.

“Oh, don’t tell me, you think we should stay, too,” Yuffie crossed her arms in front of her and frowned.

“No, actually, I think it’s a good idea.”

“...really?”

Aerith nodded. Turning to Tifa, she clasped her hands in front of her. “Having more of his friends there to support him couldn’t hurt,” she said lightly.

Tifa stared into Aerith’s emerald green eyes for some time before nodding slowly. “Alright. Who’s coming then?”

“Me, obviously!” Yuffie jumped up, “I’ll go get my stuff!” she shouted over her shoulder as she ran out of the room.

“I take it you’re coming, too,” Tifa looked at Aerith, who nodded. “There’s room for one more on my ship, do you want to come, Leon?” 

“I’ll stay here,” he answered, standing to leave. “Have fun keeping track of Yuffie.”

 

“So where’re we going first?” Yuffie bounced excitedly in her seat as Tifa started the gummi ship.

“Hmm. I don’t know. We’ll have to figure it out as we go.”

Aerith closed her eyes and thought for a moment. “I think … yes, I remember Cloud saying something about how he had spent time in the Olympus Coliseum before he came to Radiant Garden. Maybe we should start there?”

“That’s as good a place as any,” Tifa nodded and started flipping switches and pressing buttons on the control panel in front of her. “It’s a long ride, so get comfortable.”

After several hours of Yuffie’s constant babbling about how excited she was and could they believe this was her first time going somewhere other than Radiant Gardens (Traverse Town didn’t count in her opinion since she hadn’t had a choice about going there) and did they think they would find Cloud right away because she wanted to see more worlds before they found him and and and… she had finally fallen asleep.

Tifa looked uneasily over her shoulder at the ninja before whispering to Aerith, “Does she always talk that much?”

“Mmhmm,” Aerith smiled sympathetically at her. “You’ll learn to tune her out after a while.” Tifa shook her head in disbelief and returned her attention to the gummi ship’s controls.

Suddenly the inky blackness surrounding the ship turned a brilliant, pure white, then faded back to a dark purple-black, but not as dark as it had been before.

“What was that?” Tifa looked over at Aerith, who was smiling softly.

“Sora. He must have defeated Organization XIII.” Aerith’s knowing smile lit up her entire face. “Things are going to start going back to normal.”

Tifa smiled back, and looked over at Yuffie again. “Do you think we should wake her up and tell her?”

Aerith shook her head. “She’ll know soon enough.”

 

_Yuffie spun, Conformer flying gracefully from her hand. “Take that, Heartless!” she laughed as the group of shadows dissolved around her. “Yes! The great ninja Yuffie strikes again! No heartless can match me!”_

_She swung Conformer around her victoriously and grinned before trotting further down the path, not noticing how the familiar scenery of Radiant Garden had faded into a rundown city. Ahead of her she spotted a huge heartless stomping through the street._

_“Oooh, a challenge…”_

_As she crept along behind a line of rubble and broken down cars, she tried to figure out what type of heartless it was. The large purple body and horns that curled up from its face looked more funny than frightening, and she couldn’t keep from giggling. At this its head came up and it turned to face her._

_“Oops…”_

_It charged towards her, and all of a sudden it didn’t look funny anymore. Blue-gray hide and red-orange mane surrounded a snarling face framed by two glossy black horns that looked like they had recently been sharpened._

_“Aaah!” she slipped and found herself staring up as the beast leapt at her._

_Two gunshots, so close together you could barely distinguish the separate sounds, tore through the air and the beast (behemoth..?) fell at her feet. She scrambled up and took a few steps back to study the scene before her. The behemoth was dead, and a pale blue-green stream was rising from its body (that’s not right ... shouldn’t it have released a heart ..?)_

_She turned to thank Leon (of course it had to be Leon, he was the only one who had a gun … well, gunblade … it couldn’t have been anyone else, right..?) “Heh, thanks for that Le-”_

_“Yuffie.” That was definitely not Leon’s voice…_

_Looking up she found herself staring into a pair of blood red eyes._

 

Yuffie jerked up from her lounging position in the seat. “What just happened??”

 

**_Even when you’re sleeping_ **

**_Keep your ey-eyes open_ **

 


	2. Chapter 2

**_The tricky thing_ **

**_Is yesterday we were just children_ **

**_Playing soldiers_ **

 

“Are you sure you’re alright, Yuffie?” Aerith asked, watching the girl squirm and avoid meeting her eyes.

“Yeah. Yeah, I’m fine. Super. It was nothing. Really.” Yuffie looked at the floor, the ceiling, the window, anything but Aerith and Tifa. “I’m just tired of being stuck in here,” she waved her hands at the ship.

“Well, we’re almost there,” Tifa said. 

“Good, because I’m feeling a little queasy…”

“Don’t you dare get sick in here!” Tifa turned around to glare at her. “We’ve been traveling for hours and you’re just now getting motion sickness? I can’t believe this,” she faced forward again.

Yuffie kept her head down and didn’t mention that it had more to do with the dream she had had than anything. _Red eyes … red eyes … I don’t know anyone with red eyes … do I?_

 

“Wow, this is … disappointing …” Yuffie looked at their surroundings and shook her head.

“What were you expecting?” Tifa asked wryly as she walked past.

An image of a sprawling city came to mind, but Yuffie didn’t say anything. When she thought of cities she thought of the one from her dream, and she still wasn’t sure what to think about it.

“Yuffie, please,” Aerith put a hand on her shoulder and forced her to meet her eyes, “try to be … discreet. We don’t want to offend anyone here.” Aerith sighed and went to catch up with Tifa.

“Okay, well, you guys can go check in town, I’m gonna go see what that big building is up there!” She dashed past the other two before they could say anything.

After passing through a large door flanked by two even larger warrior statues, she found herself in an arena. It was completely empty of people, with just a few boxes and barrels scattered around. She sighed and walked over to the stands. _This is way more boring that I thought it would be…_ Sitting down she scuffed the toe of one of her shoes on the floor and let her thoughts wander. 

 _Why couldn’t we end up on a world like the one I saw in my dream? Sure it was depressing, but something about it … it felt familiar …_ she let her eyes drift closed as she tried to picture the city again. No matter how hard she tried, the landscape just blurred the more she concentrated on it. The only clear image she had was of those eyes. 

Huffing in annoyance, Yuffie threw herself down along the bench so that she was lying on her back. _Who knows how long Aerith and Tifa will be in town …_ she thought with a roll of her eyes. As she lay there, her eyes slowly drifted closed again.

 

_She was in a forest, looking up at the stars through the tree branches. A fire crackled somewhere behind her, and every now and then a snore would carry through the air. The shadows shifted to her left, and all of a sudden someone was sitting beside her._

_“Yuffie.”_

_“Hey V----”_

_“It is late. You should sleep.”_

_“Nah. Don’t feel like it.”_

_“…”_

_“Too much on my mind, ya know?”_

_A movement, a single nod, from her companion, and they lapsed into silence._

_“The others don’t think that I’m taking this seriously. Because I’m always joking and laughing.” She bowed her head. “They don’t see how hard it is … especially since Aerith …”_

_Her companion was completely still, and she wondered if she had said the wrong thing. One could never be sure with him._

_“You know what? Just forget I said anything…” she stood and turned to go back to her place by the fire._

_“Yuffie…” she turned to look at him, but he was no longer there. A hand hesitatingly rested on her shoulder. She could sense him struggling to find words._

_“Don’t worry about it, V----. I’ll be okay.”_

_After taking a few steps she turned to look over her shoulder, and her stormy grey eyes met glowing red ones._

_“Thanks, though.”_

 

This time she woke up slowly, and as she sat up she tried to hold onto the image from the end of her dream. And yet, it faded so quickly that all she was left with was an image of glowing red eyes and a sense that everything she and the gang had faced up to this point had been child’s play compared to what was going to happen (whether it was just in her dreams or not, she wasn’t sure). 

“Hey, you okay?” Yuffie jumped up and whipped out Conformer, pointing it at the person who had just come up behind her. He took a step back and held his hands up in front of him. “Whoa, easy! I didn’t mean to scare you!”

“You didn’t scare me,” she said indignantly, lowering Conformer when she saw that he wasn’t a threat. Actually he was kind of cute, she thought as he took a seat next to her. His spiky black hair and bright blue eyes gave him a mischievous look, like he would be a good person to pull pranks with.

“So what are you doing out here by yourself?”

“Just waiting for some friends,” she sat back down and set Conformer beside her. “What about you?”

“I came to get some practice in before the tournament tomorrow,” he eyed Conformer and grinned. “Say, you wanna help me out? Hitting these barrels around isn’t really much of a challenge, and no else has shown up yet. Do you feel like sparring?” He gestured to the sword he had strapped to his back.

“Sure!” Yuffie leapt up again with a grin of her own.

“Great! I’m Zack,” he said, his grin turning into a genuinely friendly smile.

“Yuffie,” she swung Conformer up to her shoulder and struck a pose, “the greatest ninja ever!”

“I wonder if you’ll still be the ‘greatest’ after I beat you!” he laughed as he went into a battle pose and drew his sword.

“Psh, yeah right. I bet I could beat you in my sleep!”

“We’ll see about that.”

Yuffie didn’t have time to reply before he dashed toward her. She did a cartwheel to avoid the diagonal slash that he had aimed at her. 

“Not too shabby!” she darted behind one of the barrels and kicked it, sending it flying through the air.

Zack rolled out of the way and came at her again. “You’re not so bad yourself!”

They carried on like this for a while, trading blows and sending the occasional box or barrel at each other. Neither noticed the doors to the arena opening. Zack sent another barrel flying just as Tifa screamed, “Yuffie, what are you doing??!” Distracted, she turned to look at Tifa and Aerith.

“Yuffie!” Zack shouted in warning, but she didn’t move fast enough. The last thing she saw before she blacked out was the ground rushing up to meet her.

 

_Yuffie typed furiously on the little keys on her phone. “I can’t tell you my name, but I know something of interest to you. I’m not the same person as the sender of the last two anonymous messages, so don’t worry. I heard there’s a secret item somewhere inside some cave. If an anti-Shinra entity finds this, then stick a fork in Shinra - it’s done! You really should find it before it’s too late.” Hitting the send button, she grinned. “Piece of cake! He’ll be here in no time.”_

_She hid behind some of the rocks at the cave entrance and waited. It didn’t take very long before she heard someone coming up the path._

_“I can’t believe this … it was only an hour ago that she sent the last message …” he muttered under his breath. (Silly SOLDIER, didn’t he know that ninjas have AWESOME hearing?) Yuffie held perfectly still until he has passed. After counting to ten, she followed him._

_It didn’t take long for him to fight through all of the monsters and find the treasure chest. As soon as he went to open it, she made her move. Dashing up behind him, she slid to a stop and put her hands on her hips._

_“Stand aside!” she demanded, using her most intimidating voice._

_He turned and looked down at her, a bemused expression in his eyes._

_“I said, stand aside!”_

_“No! I earned this fair and square. If you want treasure, you have to work for it yourself!” He looked down his nose at her with his bright blue eyes. “Look, I don’t mind helping you, but right now I’m the only one doing any work!”_

_Yuffie narrowed her eyes, then her lip started to tremble. “I want … my treasure,” she sniffed as tears started to pool in her eyes._

_“Uh-uh, I’m not falling for that again. You’re not going to cry,” he crossed his arms and kept staring down at her. She sniffed a few more times, then started sobbing. “Whoa! Hey, hey, none of that! Seriously, don’t cry!” Her sobs turned to wails and she fisted her hands at her sides. “Okay … okay fine, fine, take it!”_

_At this, her wails stopped abruptly and she ran past him, not bothering to check what was in the chest as she grabbed it and kept going._

_“Sucker…” she chuckled as she ran out of the cave and started looking for somewhere to examine her latest prize._

 

**_Just pretending_ **

**_Dreaming dreams with happy endings_ **

**_In backyards, winning battles with our wooden swords_ **

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Zack Fair is one of my all time favorite characters, in this or any fandom :)


	3. Chapter 3

**_But now we’ve stepped into a cruel world_ **

**_Where everybody stands and keeps score_ **

  

“Yuffie!”

“Yuffie! Can you hear us?”

“Open your eyes! C’mon Yuffie!”

“Nooooo,” she groaned, curling up into a ball. “Five more minutes …”

“She’s alright,” Aerith sighed, moving away from the young ninja.

“I can’t believe she didn’t dodge that! I’d barely hit her at all before that,” Zack held his hands out at his sides. “I’m really sorry.” He ran a hand through his hair and looked nervously back and forth between Aerith and Tifa. “Seriously, I didn’t mean to hit her that hard.”

“Don’t worry about it,” Aerith told him. “Stuff like this seems to happen to her a lot. She usually bounces back pretty quickly, so I’m not too worried about her.”

Tifa nodded and straightened from where she had been kneeling next to Yuffie. “Once she gets up we’ll head back to the ship. I think I have an idea where we should go next.”

 

Yuffie stood next to the ship watching Aerith smile shyly at Zack. They had been “saying goodbye” for the past five minutes, and they still didn’t look ready to part. Something about seeing the two of them together made her feel like crying and smiling at the same time, though she had no idea why.

“Hey, Tifa,” she called as she entered the ship, “we have room for someone else to come with us, right?”

“Yeah,” Tifa turned from where she had been checking their supplies. “Why do you ask?”

“Well … I think we should ask Zack to come with us,” she plopped down in her seat and looked at the other girl.

“I don’t know, Yuffie. We just met him, and he seems like he’s pretty busy with his own stuff. Didn’t he say something about a tournament that he’s competing in tomorrow?”

“Yeah, but Tifa, c’mon, you have to have noticed the way he and Aerith are getting along. They’re still out there talking, and they don’t look like they’re gonna stop anytime soon.” She crossed her arms and looked down at her feet, “besides, I don’t like the idea of seeing them separated. I know it sounds weird … but …”

Tifa looked thoughtful for a moment, before responding, “You know, now that I think about it, I kind of feel the same way,” she looked at Yuffie and raised one eyebrow, “they’ve been apart long enough. But that doesn’t make any sense because they’ve only just met.” She shook her head and moved toward the door. “I guess it wouldn’t hurt to ask if he wants to come.”

“Tifa?”

“Hmm?”

“Have you got any other weird feelings, other than this with Zack and Aerith?” Yuffie carefully avoided making eye contact as she asked this.

Tifa crossed her arms and fisted one hand beneath her chin while she thought for a moment. “I can’t say that I have. The only thing I’ve been thinking about lately is finding Cloud, and helping him get past whatever it is that he’s going through right now.” She studied Yuffie for a few seconds. “Why do you ask?”

Yuffie jumped up and shook her head quickly, “No reason! Just wondering, that’s all! Hey, I’m gonna go run through the town real quick, since I didn’t really get to see it before, okay?” She dashed out the door before Tifa could give her an answer.

_Whew, that was close_ , she thought as she stopped just outside of the town. She had absolutely no desire to see any more of this world, but she had to get away from Tifa’s knowing gaze.

Sliding down the wall into a sitting position, she wondered how long it would be until they left. Maybe the next world they visited would be more like the one that she kept seeing. 

 

_“Hey Vi---! Just wanted to congratulate you on finally getting a phone! Seriously, it’s about time! The next step is actually ANSWERING your phone, but that’s okay, you’re probably really busy right now so I’ll just call back later. Bye!”_

_*-_-*-_-*-_-*-_-*-_-*-_-*-_-*-_-*-_-*-_-*-_-*_

_“Okay V---y, this is like, the twelfth time I’ve called you this week, and you haven’t picked up once. Can you please try to answer sometime? I’ll call back in a few hours, and you’d better answer, mister!”_

_*-_-*-_-*-_-*-_-*-_-*-_-*-_-*-_-*-_-*-_-*-_-*_

_“V--V--, c’mon!!! I’m getting really tired of listening to your answering machine. It’s so boring. You know, if you actually answered your phone I wouldn’t have to listen to it, and I wouldn’t be bored! Don’t you want to keep me from being bored? Answer your phone!”_

_*-_-*-_-*-_-*-_-*-_-*-_-*-_-*-_-*-_-*-_-*-_-*_

_“Oh, haha, very funny. Just because you changed the message doesn’t make it any less boring, V----. You know what, just for that, I’m not going to call you for a whole day! See how you like that!”_

_*-_-*-_-*-_-*-_-*-_-*-_-*-_-*-_-*-_-*-_-*-_-*_

_“Okay, forget about that last message. I really need to talk to you, so can you call me back? Or at least answer next time I call? Please?”_

_*-_-*-_-*-_-*-_-*-_-*-_-*-_-*-_-*-_-*-_-*-_-*_

_“V---y Vi- V-- McV-------! Did you lose your phone? You must have lost your phone, that’s the only explanation for why you haven’t answered any of the messages that I’ve left you! You really need to find it and call me back. I’m waiting!”_

_*-_-*-_-*-_-*-_-*-_-*-_-*-_-*-_-*-_-*-_-*-_-*_

_“Hey, V----, I think your inbox is full. You really need to delete some of those unimportant messages. You know, the ones that Re--- sends you about missions and stuff. You don’t need those! Trust me, I never listen to the ones he sends me, and I do just fine!”_

_*-_-*-_-*-_-*-_-*-_-*-_-*-_-*-_-*-_-*-_-*-_-*_

_“Yuffie, I would greatly appreciate it if you would stop leaving me messages.”_

_*-_-*-_-*-_-*-_-*-_-*-_-*-_-*-_-*-_-*-_-*-_-*_

_“Hey! You found your phone! Wait, did you even lose it in the first place? Well whatever, don’t worry about it. Cloud and Tifa said something about an A--L---HE reunion in a few weeks, so I guess I’ll see you there. Don’t be late! I’ve got lots and lots to tell you! Of course you’ll just sit in your corner and brood, but you can still listen to all my awesome stories and -”_

 

“Yuffie!” Tifa shook the ninja’s shoulder again, trying to get her attention.

“Huh, what?” Yuffie blinked a few times and looked up. “Oh, hey Tifa, ready to go?”

“Yuffie, you’ve been staring into space for the past five minutes, what’s going on with you?” Tifa stepped back, and Yuffie stood and skipped off a few steps.

“Nothing! I was just zoned out, that’s all. Why are you so worried?” Tifa didn’t answer, just rolled her eyes and started back to the ship. “Hey, did you ask Zack if he wants to come with us?”

“Yeah, he’s coming. He and Aerith are waiting for us back at the ship.”

“Great! Well what are you waiting for? Let’s go!” Yuffie took off running.

 

“So where are we headed now?” Yuffie asked as she settled into her seat on the ship.

“You’re just going to have to wait and see,” Tifa answered, not bothering to look over at the younger girl.

Yuffie sighed and slouched in her seat. “It’s gonna be another long ride, isn’t it?”

“Yup.”

“Great.”

“Oh, come on Yuffie,” Zack grinned at her, “it’ll be fun!”

“You’re just saying that because you’ve never been to another world before. It’s not as exciting as it’s cracked up to be.”

“Actually, this isn’t my home world. I just came here because I wanted to train to become a hero.”

“If this isn’t your home world,” Tifa looked over her shoulder at him questioningly, “then where are you from?”

His grin faded as he thought for a moment. “… You know, it’s weird … but … for some reason, I can’t remember,” he ran a hand through his spiky hair and looked away. “How could I forget something like that?” An uncomfortable silence descended on all of them, until Zack laughed. “Oh well, guess I’ve just spent too much time here,” he shrugged.

“But,” Yuffie looked at him out of the corner of her eye, “doesn’t it bother you? Not remembering something so important?”

“Well, yeah. But the way I see it, if it really is important, it’ll come back to me,” his blue eyes met her stormy grey ones, and after a second they widened slightly. Yuffie looked away quickly, not knowing what to say since something in his gaze told her that he knew she was having memory issues as well. “You can’t force memories. When the time is right, they’ll come back to you.”

Yuffie glanced up at this, nodded once in acknowledgment, and turned to look out the window. She couldn’t decide if it made her feel better knowing that Zack felt like he had forgotten something important as well. 

 

“How much longer?” Yuffie moaned as she slid down further in her seat.

“I told you, Yuffie, I don’t know,” Tifa said through gritted teeth. “Something is interfering with the navigation systems.”

“Is there anything that we can do?” Aerith asked.

“No, I don’t think so,” Tifa said absently as she adjusted a dial on the panel in front of her. “I think it’s just-”

The ship jerked suddenly to the side, sending Yuffie flying out of her seat. Zack fell on the floor and Aerith fell on top of him. Tifa managed to stay in her seat, and she began checking and adjusting all kinds of things on the control panel.

“What was that?!” Zack helped Aerith back into her seat just before the ship jerked again. Alarms started to wail and all of the lights began flashing. 

Yuffie rolled into a ball on the floor and covered her head with her arms. “Make it stop, Tifa!”

“I’m trying!!”

The ship shuddered, and all of a sudden they were in free fall. It rolled to the side and began tumbling over and over, as the four of them were tossed around the cabin like rag dolls. Yuffie managed to latch onto the back of her seat and watched helplessly as her friends collided with the walls and everything else that was flying around. She looked out the ships windows and saw the ground coming up to meet them at an alarming rate. Closing her eyes tightly, she waited for the impact.

 

_“Yuffie.”_

_“Heya, Vince! I decided I’d come crash with you for a few days,” she bounced past him into the main hall of the mansion, “you don’t mind, right? Of course you don’t, I make an awesome house guest!” She spun in a circle, taking in her surroundings. “Sheesh, you really need to fix this place up, it’s a mess. I know! Once I’m all unpacked we’ll go shopping! Then I’ll help you get this place back in shape!”_

_He stood silently by the door and watched her as she danced around the room, never once ceasing her monologue about what they should do to make the mansion more acceptable for living. He sighed quietly and waited for her to finish._

_“So how about it? Are you in?” she grinned, her hands on her hips in that triumphant manner that she used when she knew that she had already won._

_He inclined his head slightly, and flinched at her high pitched squeal of delight._

_“Great! I’ll just take my stuff upstairs! I’ll be right back!” She grabbed her bag and dashed up the stairs. A little over halfway up, the step broke underneath of her, and she crashed through it to the floor. When the dust settled, she looked over at him and coughed a few times._

_“Perhaps we should start by repairing the stairs?” his voice was completely even as he said this, not betraying the slight smile that was hidden behind his cloak._

_“Are you laughing at me?” she narrowed her eyes at him, and crossed her arms. “You are! That’s so rude, Vinnie! What if I’d been hurt?! Would you still be laughing then?!!”_

_He moved so that he was standing over her. “No,” he held out his hand to help her up. She glared at him for a few more seconds, before grinning again and taking his hand._

_“Alright, let’s go. Those stairs aren’t gonna fix themselves.”_

 

**_Keep your eyes open_ **


	4. Chapter 4

 

**_Everybody’s waiting for you to breakdown_ **

**_Everybody’s watching to see the fallout_ **

**_Even when you’re sleeping, sleeping_ **

 

Yuffie’s eyes fluttered open, but she immediately closed them again. _Too bright!_ she thought, turning her head away from the light. 

“Ugh, what … happened …” she groaned, every part of her body screaming in pain. Her mind felt foggy and she couldn’t keep her focus on anything for more than a few seconds before her thoughts slid away to something else. 

Pushing herself up into a sitting position, she slowly opened her eyes again. It took a little while before her vision cleared and she was able to study her surroundings. She was in a forest, the trees overhead swaying in a slight breeze as beams of sunshine made their way between the leaves. There was a path, that she could just barely see from where she was sitting, that cut through the forest.

 _I guess I should see where that goes_ , she thought, looking around again. _Maybe then I’ll figure out where I am…_

Yuffie stood slowly, swaying just a bit as her head started to pound. She reached up to touch the spot just above her temple where the pounding was the worst. Her fingers came away covered in a rusty red-brown color.

“That’s not good,” she mumbled, wondering what had caused the wound, and how long she had been unconscious. _Hopefully there’s people around here somewhere…_

She stumbled over to the path, and tried to decide which way she should go. “Left or right, left or right, ummm, let’s go … left … yeah that sounds like a good idea…”

After just a few minutes of walking, her mind started to wander again. _Just so long as my feet keep moving, I’ll be fine… I have to run into someone sooner or later …_

 

_Yuffie slipped silently through the door, closing it behind her with a soft click. It was nearly midnight, and she had been out all day exploring. When she’d gotten tired of that, she’d gone into town and window shopped for a while. When that got boring, she decided to actually buy some things, then remembered that she had no money with her. Of course, she didn’t let that stop her._

_Now, sneaking back into the house, she realized that she’d barely eaten all day. Setting down her bags, she tiptoed to the newly renovated kitchen. She opened the refrigerator door and peered inside. (Ick! What’s with all this healthy food? Didn’t he buy any snacks?) Closing the door with a huff, she spun slowly in a circle, thinking._

_Before she could make any decisions, the lights snapped on, momentarily blinding her. She shrieked and jumped back, tripping over air in the process, and ended up sprawled out on the floor._

_“Yuffie.”_

_“Oh … hehe, hey Vince. What’s up?”_

_He didn’t say anything, merely leaned against the doorframe and stared down at her. She noticed that he was fully dressed - shoes, cape, and everything._

_“Sheesh, don’t you ever change your clothes?”_

_He raised one eyebrow questioningly._

_“I mean, c’mon, Vince, it’s almost midnight. You’re normally asleep by now.”_

_“I was waiting,” he crossed his arms in front of him and continued to watch her._

_“Waiting? For what?” She picked herself up off the floor and dusted herself off._

_“You.”_

_“M-m-me?” she stammered, looking around nervously. “Why would you be waiting up for me?”_

_“Perhaps because I’ve gotten used to your habits,” he replied, straightening and moving across the floor towards her._

_She shuffled off in the opposite direction, keeping herself as far from him as possible. She didn’t like the way that he was looking at her. That was the look that he gave her after she had played some prank that hadn’t gone over all that well. Or when she ‘borrowed’ some of his materia. Or when she inadvertently caused something seriously bad to happen. Now that she thought about it, she got that look a lot …_

_“What habits? I really have no idea what you’re talking about, Vince. I just wanted to get a little snack before I went up to bed! That’s it! I swear!”_

_“And what happened the last time you decided to ‘get a snack’?” He asked, a hint of annoyance in his voice._

_Oh, that … yeah._

_“Erm, well, I uh …” she trailed off, mumbling something incoherent._

_“Yuffie.” Now his tone was just short of scolding._

_“I almost burned the house down! There! You happy?! I almost burned the house down, and I was only boiling water! I’m sorry! How many times do I have to say it? I’m sorry, okay?!!” she cried, before turning and running upstairs to her room._

_Not long after she had slammed the door, she heard a soft knock._

_“What do you want now??” she didn’t bother getting up to open the door._

_“Yuffie,” he sighed, “may I come in?”_

_“Sure. Why not.”_

_He opened the door slowly, and if she had been in a better mood, she would have laughed at the way he hesitatingly peeked around the edge of the door, keeping out of the line of fire for as long as possible._

_“What is it, Vincent?”_

_“I did not mean to anger you, Yuffie,” he let the door swing open the rest of the way, but stayed in the doorway. “There are leftovers for you in the microwave. If you had turned the light on, you would have seen the note on the counter.”_

_“If you left a note, then why did you bother staying up? The whole point of leaving a note is so that you can go to bed and let the other person find it.”_

_He sighed again, “I knew you would not bother to read it,” (did he just roll his eyes? No way! He never rolls his eyes. It’s like that action is beneath him or something. It must have been a trick of the light) “so I waited. The food is still downstairs if you want it.” He turned and walked down the hallway to his room. “Goodnight, Yuffie,” his voice carried clearly through the silent house, and she smiled._

_Bouncing out of bed, she made her way back down to the kitchen._

_A few minutes later, she was knocking on Vincent’s door. “Hey, Vince, I never really liked that microwave, did you? I think we should get a new one … like, tomorrow. Sound good to you?” She stared up at him with as much innocence as she could muster when he opened the door. (He definitely rolled his eyes that time…)_

 

Yuffie’s foot caught on a tree root in the path, making her trip and fall flat on her face. _Uhn, maybe I should try to pay more attention instead of daydreaming … or remembering … or whatever this is …_ Climbing slowly to her feet, she looked ahead and realized that she was near a large fort looking building.

“Wow, this looks cool,” she said, stumbling forward through the plants that had overgrown the path. 

She started walking along the wall, looking for a way inside. There were vines growing up the walls, and trees growing just a few feet away, but she started swaying as soon as she thought about climbing any of them.

“Head wounds and climbing: not a good combination…” she muttered, keeping a hand on the wall to steady herself as she walked.

After a few minutes of walking slowly around the outer wall, she found a section that had crumbled enough that she could climb through it. Inside wasn’t in much better condition, with plants overgrowing everything and walls in various stages of collapse. Picking her way through it all, Yuffie found a banner, torn and faded, caught under part of a fallen wall. When she pulled it out and looked at it, she was surprised to find that the writing was still in fairly good condition.

“Too bad I can’t read this gibberish,” she chuckled, about to throw it over her shoulder when the light caught it a certain way. “What…” She narrowed her eyes and studied it again. “… Fort … Tamblin …” she whispered, running her eyes over the flowing lines. She dropped the banner like it had burned her and scrambled backward until her back hit the wall. “That’s not possible! How can I read that! I’ve never seen that type of writing before in my life!” She ran her hands roughly through her hair and shook her head violently.

She turned and ran through the nearest archway. When she finally stopped, she stood hyperventilating and clutching her head, which now hurt even worse than it had before. A noise made her look up, and she found herself looking through another archway, this one leading out into a courtyard.

Although it was still in bad shape, this looked to be the most well preserved area in the entire fort. To her left was a split stair case leading up a large gate that was halfway off of its hinges. In front of where the stairs split, a small fountain stood, almost like it was on guard. To her right, a smaller building sat on a slight rise, the bushes and trees surrounding it suggesting careful landscaping, a long time ago. And someone was standing in front of the building, staring into space with a blank expression similar to the one that had been gracing her face so often lately.

 

_She stood in the shadows, watching as the brave troops tried to fight off the enemy. They gave it their all, but it just wasn’t enough. It wasn’t their fault. Their enemy cheated, using resources that her poor people couldn’t hope to ever afford._

_One of the enemy had broken off from the rest, causing trouble all by himself. (I can do something about that!) She snuck along behind him, careful to keep out of sight until the right moment._

_Wutai’s greatest warrior would save the day! Then her people would recognize her as more than just a scabby-kneed tomboy of a princess. They would see that she could help them._

_“One, avoid unnecessary training!” her voice rang out through the courtyard clearly, and the enemy froze in terror. “Two, protect Wutai at all costs!” Now he looked around frantically, fear in his eyes. “Three, ugly Shinra SOLDIER dudes …” oh, now she had him, he was quivering in fright, “...must be PUNISHED!”_

_She jumped onto the steps above him while he wasn’t looking. (To his puny SOLDIER mind it must have looked like I appeared out of thin air! Haha!)_

_“Who are you?” he whimpered._

_“I’m Wutai’s greatest warrior! If you wanna go further, you have to go through me!” she declared._

_He looked up at her, trying to look brave, but she could see through his act. “You shouldn’t be playing here, it’s dangerous! Go home to your parents.”_

_She leapt up and over him, landing gracefully behind him. “You’re the one who’s going home!” She fisted her hands at her sides. “If you insist on going any further, you’ll have a fight on your hands!”_

_He was so scared that he didn’t move, just stared at her. (Alright, I’ll give you a little incentive to get your butt moving!) She dashed up to him and started her attack, going easy on him at first, since she didn’t want to obliterate him with her totally awesome moves._

_“Whap! Pow! Bam! Take that, bad guy!”_

_It took a few seconds before he overcame his shock and crumbled to the ground. “Arrrgh! Nooo! You got me!”_

_She put her hands on her hips and stared down at him triumphantly. “There! That’ll teach you to mess with me! Once again I’ve brought peace to Wutai!” She turned and dashed off, looking for other stupid SOLDIERs to punish._

 

Yuffie blinked her eyes rapidly, then shook her head to try to clear away the images. She stepped into the courtyard, careful not to catch her feet in any of the overgrowth. When she got closer, she reached out and tugged on the other person’s jet black hair.

“Let me guess,” he kept his voice low, almost reverent, as he turned to face her, “if I wanna go further, I have to go through you?”

It should have been a statement, not a question. It should have been funny, not heartbreakingly depressing. It should have been something that she scoffed at, not something that made her burst into tears.

“Zack … what’s … what’s happening … to us?” she managed to cry out between her sobs. He held her in a loose hug, patting her back every now and then.

“I don’t know, kid,” he whispered, looking around at the crumbling fort. “I don’t know.”

 

**_Keep your ey-eyes open_ **

**_Keep your ey-eyes open_ **

**_Keep your ey-eyes open_**

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I really like the idea of Zack and Yuffie having a brother/sister type relationship. The two of them would get into so much trouble together, haha


	5. Chapter 5

**_So here you are, two steps ahead and staying on guard_ **

**_Every lesson forms a new scar_ **

**_They never thought you’d make it this far_ **

  

“So, how long have you been remembering stuff?” Yuffie sat next to the fountain, using the water to gently wash away some of the blood on her head. Zack sat with his back against the wall a few feet away, keeping a careful eye on her.

“Not long,” he answered. “It didn’t really start until after I saw you. Well,” he looked away for a moment, “not you, exactly …”

Yuffie couldn’t help but grin when she noticed that he was blushing. “When you saw Aerith?”

“Yeah.” He started fiddling with the laces on his boots. “Actually, I did get the feeling that I knew you when I first saw you at the Coliseum. I just figured that I’d seen you in passing or something, you know? But now I know that couldn’t be what it was.” Zack looked over at her again. “When did you start remembering? If that’s even what it is,” he added softly.

“When we first left, to start looking for Cloud. I fell asleep, and I had a really weird dream, and since then, I just…” Zack nodded in understanding when she trailed off. “And now, looking at all of the stuff here in this fort, I get the feeling that I should remember a lot more than I do. It’s just so frustrating!”

“It’s like I said before, Yuffie. You can’t force memories. When the time is right, they’ll come back to you.” He stood and offered her a hand up.

“I know, but it’s like, the answer is right there in front of me, just out of my reach. And when I see things like this,” she pointed to the carved figure in the fountain, “it just makes it worse. I know what this is,” she leaned closer to the serpentine figure, “it has a name, I know it does, but I can’t remember what it is.”

Zack moved so that he could see the figure clearly, and studied it as well. “It must not have any significance to me,” he said quietly, “the only feeling I get is that it was a central part of the scenery last time I was here. I probably didn’t know anything about it then, either.”

Yuffie continued staring at the figure, showing no indication that she’d heard him. _If I can just remember ... this one tiny little thing … I know things will start to come back to me … they have to … what is its name? … It starts with ..._

“Leviathan!” she shouted, jumping and throwing her arms in the air triumphantly.

Zack jumped back and looked at her, a worried expression on his face.

“Its name is Leviathan!” She started to jump up and down again, excitement taking over, until her head started to pound. “Owww,” she moaned, holding her head in her hands.

“Take it easy,” Zack looked at her with a mixture of amusement and concern in his eyes. “What’s so exciting about it?” he nodded his head towards the fountain.

“It’s not that,” she looked up at him, a genuine smile lighting up her face. “I actually remembered something that I wanted to remember, when I wanted to remember it! Everything before has just been in flashes, and the important stuff was never clear enough for me to understand.” A determined look flashed in her eyes. “Now maybe I’ll start to remember what happened to us.”

Zack nodded and looked around one last time before heading towards the archway that Yuffie had come through earlier. “Alright, while you try to remember that, let’s look for Aerith and Tifa.”

 

_Aerith had been more quiet than usual, keeping to herself rather than talking with the rest of the group. Yuffie didn’t notice the change right away, but once she did, it bothered her. Every so often she would catch the gentle flower girl gazing out into the distance, like she was looking for someone._

_A few days passed, and Aerith still wasn’t acting like herself. Yuffie had started paying more attention to her friend, worried by the changes that she was seeing._

_“Hey, Aerith,” she came up beside her and watched her out of the corner of her eye, “are you okay?”_

_“Hmm? Why do you ask, Yuffie?” her voice was low, not quite a whisper._

_“I don’t know, you just seem … distant …”_

_Aerith nodded, and turned to the young ninja, the beginnings of a sad smile on her face. “I’m alright, Yuffie. I’ve just had a lot on my mind lately.”_

_As she said this, Cloud walked by, arguing with Barret over something. He looked over at them long enough to give Aerith a shy smile. When Yuffie looked back at Aerith, she saw that her smile had become forced._

_“Oh, I get it,” she looked at Cloud, who had gone back to arguing with Barret. “You don’t like him back.”_

_Aerith sighed, “No, it’s not that. Well, not exactly. You see,” she hesitated, and Yuffie could see just how worn out Aerith looked, “I … I love someone else. Cloud … he reminds me of him sometimes, but it’s not the same.”_

_“Who’s this other guy?” Yuffie’s eyes widened dramatically, “it’s not Barret, is it?? Or Cid? Eww, please don’t tell me it’s one of them!”_

_Aerith interrupted her before she could say anymore. “No, Yuffie, it’s not one of them,” there was a hint of laughter in her voice now. “I haven’t seen him in a very long time.”_

_“Why not?”_

_She sighed again, and looked off into the distance. “He had to go away, and he couldn’t tell me where. I was able to call him a few times, but then I lost contact with him.”_

_“So you don’t have any idea where he is?”_

_“Actually,” Aerith shifted so that she was leaning back and looked up at the stars, “I do know where he is.”_

_“Then why don’t you go to him?”_

_“Because, he’s gone somewhere where I can’t follow. At least, not yet. Soon … I might be able to …” She reached up and ran her fingers over the faded pink bow in her hair._

_Yuffie nodded and smiled. “Well, if you need any help from me, just ask.”_

_“Thanks, Yuffie.”_

_Yuffie stood and turned to walk back over to the rest of the group. She looked over her shoulder, “Hey, what’s his name?”_

_“Zack.” Aerith’s mouth curved up in a genuine smile. “Zack Fair.”_

 

_Yuffie tried not to think about that conversation with the flower girl for a long time, since every time she did it reminded her of what had happened just a few days later. It wasn’t until a year after her friend’s death, that she finally realized what Aerith had meant about him being somewhere that she couldn’t follow._

 

Yuffie felt the tears welling in her eyes, and rubbed furiously at them before they could fall. _That doesn’t make any sense! Aerith’s not dead! But … I remember watching her die … how is that possible? And what she said to me, does that mean that Zack had died, too?_ She looked over at Zack, who was walking beside her, lost in his own thoughts.

“Zack?” she fought to keep the tremor out of her voice.

“Hmm? Yeah?” he blinked and turned to her.

“What type of stuff do you see? You know, when you’re ... remembering,” she looked at him nervously.

He thought for a moment, closing his eyes and running a hand through his messy spiked hair.

“I see … flowers. A church, with flowers, and a hole in the roof. I remember falling through the roof, and waking up to an angel saying ‘Hello.’ Making a cart to take the flowers around the city. Joking with my friends. Training.”

“Is that all?” her voice was strained, and she looked everywhere but at him.

Zack tensed, reaching up to touch the scar on his cheek that for some reason Yuffie hadn’t noticed before. “No.” He shuddered, and now his voice turned hoarse. “I remember … fighting for something that I didn’t understand. I remember finding out all of the horrible things that the people I looked up to had done.” Every word was quieter than the last, and Yuffie’s sense of dread grew. “I remember,” he choked back a sob, “killing my best friend. Watching the life drain out of him as he gave me his most precious possession, and told me to protect my honor. Seeing Sephiroth burn down a village.” He was shuddering now, head bowed in defeat, but his voice was steady again. “I remember … dying.” He looked up at her now, his brilliant blue eyes clouded in confusion. “I remember dying, Yuffie.”

She couldn’t take the look of pain in his eyes any longer. Spinning on her heel, she ran as fast as she could through the trees, not paying any attention to the number of times she fell or how badly she was hurting herself. She could hear Zack calling for her, trying to catch up to her, but he had a harder time making his way through the dense foliage. By the time she finally stopped to catch her breath, she could no longer hear him.

She was panting heavily and her head was spinning. _Right, running plus head wound equals lots of pain…_ Slumping against a tree, she forced herself to take deep breaths. Once her breathing was back to normal, she thought about everything that Zack said he remembered.

It sounded like he was remembering a lot more than Yuffie was, but he didn’t understand any more than she did. She had been hoping that her memories of Aerith’s death were wrong, but when Zack said that he remembered his own death, that hope had disappeared.

_I’m not going to figure anything out just sitting here_ , she berated herself. She pushed herself up and studied her surroundings. It was difficult to see more than a few yards in any particular direction because of the bushes and other plants growing amongst the trees. Yuffie sighed and looked at the tree she had been leaning against, then took a few steps back and jumped to the lowest branch.

Less than a minute later, Yuffie was about halfway up the tree, perched precariously on the branch. She took a deep breath and looked around again, this time seeing much more than she had before. She twisted and leaned out a little bit to see around the tree trunk behind her.

Biting back a gasp, she watched as a group of soldiers made their way through the trees, stopping beneath her tree. They all wore matching uniforms, a light tan with brown boots and hats of various styles, but all in the same shade of red. Each had a black band around their left arm with the letters _WRO_ printed boldly on it. One crouched down and examined the spot where she had been sitting, while the others stood by, keeping an eye on the surrounding forest.

Yuffie felt another memory coming to the surface. _No, no, no! This is bad, very bad! Stay focused! Don’t think about..._

 

_The forests outside of Junon were pretty boring. Yuffie didn’t know why she even bothered coming here. The monsters were annoying and there wasn’t much treasure to be found. Not long after entering the forest, she had climbed the tallest tree she could find and just sat, watching everything that happened below her._

_A few hours passed, and she had dozed off, one leg dangling off the branch. The sound of twigs snapping and voices arguing had woken her, and she looked down to find three people, two women and a man, walking beneath her. They weren’t talking loud enough for her to understand what they were saying, but she could tell that they were all annoyed._

_She watched as they walked off, wondering if it was worth it to climb down and follow them. (I don’t know, they don’t look like they have very much on them …) She shook her head and leaned back again._

_Not twenty minutes later, they were back, coming from a different direction this time. One of the women was talking louder now, and Yuffie leaned forward to listen._

_“Cloud, why didn’t you ask for directions back at Fort Condor? Now we’re lost!”_

_“We’re not lost, Tifa,” came the sullen reply._

_“Well-”_

_Before she could snap back at him, several monsters jumped out of the bushes. It didn’t take long for the three to defeat the monsters, and Yuffie’s eyes widened when she saw them using Fire and Ice materia._

_This time when they walked away, she jumped down quietly and followed._

 

“Sir! It looks like someone was here not that long ago,” one of the soldiers spoke into a radio, his had resting lightly on the gun hanging at his side. The radio crackled a response, but it wasn’t clear enough for Yuffie to understand at this distance. “Understood, sir!” The entire group straightened up, some casting nervous glances at one another.

“Do you really think we’ll find them?” one asked. The others shrugged just as the radio crackled again.

They immediately fanned out and moved away from her tree, responding to whatever command they had just received. Yuffie started to relax, then realized that they still weren’t far enough away for her to escape. She cursed under her breath and crossed her arms. _I need to get out of here before they find me…_ Her gaze drifted to the next closest tree. An idea started to form, and before she considered how stupid it might be, she mentally measured the distance from her place to one of the other tree’s branches.

Leaning forward in a crouch, she glanced down to make sure that none of the soldiers would see her jump. They all looked nervous, eyes darting back and forth like they weren’t sure what to expect. _If it wasn’t for this head wound, I jump down and give them a real scare_. She grinned at the thought. When she moved to look back up at the branch she was aiming for, a flash of red caught her eye.

There, in the distance, something was moving through the trees. Yuffie’s breath hitched, though she wasn’t sure why. Leaning farther forward, she tried to get a better look, not paying attention to how she was slowly sliding off of the branch. By the time she realized that she was falling, it was too late. With a shriek she landed heavily on her back in the middle of the soldiers.

Blearily opening her eyes, she found them all staring wide eyed at her from behind their guns.

“Owww…” she reached up and touch her head, only to find that she was bleeding again. Black dots started to dance before her eyes, and she wondered how many more times she could blackout before it started to do serious damage.

 

**_But turn around (turn around), oh they’ve surrounded you_ **

**_It’s a showdown (showdown) and nobody comes to save you now_ **

 


	6. Chapter 6

**_But you’ve got something they don’t_ **

**_Yeah you’ve got something they don’t_ **

 

Yuffie felt like she was floating in darkness. She couldn’t move, and she couldn’t open her eyes. _This kind of reminds me of that time…_ She felt herself being pulled into the memory, but before it completely took over, she heard someone talking nearby.

“...only leaves Cloud.”

“Tifa has gone to look for him.”

“Yes, I know. I sent some of the WRO soldiers with her, in case she needs help. I’m not sure how much she remembers, since she won’t take the time to answer any of my questions.” 

“She will be fine.” There was a rustle of fabric, like someone turning. “Tifa is not the one that I am worried about.”

“Yes, well, this isn’t the worst thing that’s ever happened to Yuffie.” _Hey, what’s that supposed to mean?_ she thought angrily. “Just give it some time, Vincent. She’ll pull through.” 

The sound of receding footsteps and a closing door made Yuffie think that they had left her alone. It was quiet for a long time, and she felt herself drifting off when she heard footsteps again, this time approaching her. A strand of hair was brushed off of her forehead.

“Yuffie,” a rough whisper sounded just next to her ear, “you made me promise … never to leave you alone. I am sorry … I broke my promise, and now …” the voice trailed off in a frustrated sigh. “Please, Yuffie … please … come back to me …”

The pain and sorrow that laced the words made her feel guilty, and she fought again to open her eyes.

“You were right … about everything,” _Well, duh_ , she thought, _I’m always right. But what was I right about?_ “I was not being fair to you.” This made her even more curious, but he changed the subject abruptly. “Tifa has gone to look for Cloud, again. She wished me to tell you that she expects you to be awake by the time she returns.” There was a long pause, then Yuffie felt a gentle pressure on her forehead, a feather-light touch, followed by quick footsteps toward the door. 

It didn’t take long for her to slip back into unconsciousness in the now silent room.

 

_She may not have been there to see it, but Yuffie knew that Tifa had been waiting for Cloud far longer than she was willing to admit._

_It had started when they were young, little more than children. Tifa had waited patiently for Cloud to realize that girls existed, and that, yes, his best friend was in fact a girl. She had hoped that when he made this realization, he would also see that she had feelings for him. It never really worked out the way that she wanted it to._

_She had waited again for him to come back to Nibelheim. He’d gone to chase his dreams, to become a SOLDIER. She waited for him to come home and be her hero. When he did return, he hid his face and avoided her. She never knew that he was one of the infantrymen who accompanied Sephiroth and Zack to check the Nibel Reactor._

_When Cloud appeared in Midgar, she waited for him to remember who he was. She waited for him to go back to being the boy that she had grown up with, the one she had fallen in love with. Yuffie could still picture the look of betrayal on Tifa’s face when Cloud had taken Aerith on a date at Gold Saucer. The young ninja had spent the better part of an hour comforting her friend._

_After Aerith’s death, Tifa waited for Cloud to move on with his life. She waited for him to leave his guilt behind._

_Then he left, and she waited again. This time for a phone call, a visit, anything that would let her know that the spiky haired blond was still alive._

_Then Geostigma and the Remnants happened. She could see his burdens lift away as they all stood in Aerith’s church, and she thought that she wouldn’t have to wait for much longer. Yuffie had seen the look of pride and hope in Tifa’s eyes as she had looked at Cloud. But she had also seen the way that his eyes had shifted to look behind them, to someone in the doorway. She didn’t turn quickly enough to see the full picture, but the retreating figure, clad in pink, told her what she needed to know. While Cloud’s guilt may have ended, Yuffie was afraid that Tifa’s waiting hadn’t._

_Her fears were confirmed just a few weeks later, when she entered Seventh Heaven to find Tifa perched on a stool behind the bar, tears welling in her eyes. And so Tifa waited again. This time while Cloud went out and “found himself,” whatever that meant. Yuffie made it her mission to find the stupid Chocobo head and beat some sense into him, ninja-style. Fortunately for him, she was distracted by the Deepground incident._

_After they saved the world for the third time, Cloud finally stopped wandering around the world long enough to acknowledge the fact that he had friends who were willing to help him. Now they all were sure that he would notice Tifa, and how she had been waiting for him for so long. Now she would finally stop waiting._

_But, let’s face it, everyone knows how much of a procrastinator Cloud is, and on top of that he’s blind to anything that has to do with emotions. So it shouldn’t have surprised any of them that Tifa was left waiting for another year before Cloud tentatively asked her if she was seeing anyone. Yuffie, who had been standing at the top of the stairs when she heard this, rolled her eyes and stomped downstairs to tell him what a colossal idiot he was no of course she wasn’t see anyone she had been waiting for him for over half her life how did he not notice that and honestly he must be the stupidest person she had ever known!_

_Tifa smiled slightly at Yuffie’s rampage, then turned to Cloud and shook her head. “No, Cloud, I’m not seeing anyone.” He stumbled over his words for another five minutes before he finally asked her out. Yuffie couldn’t help but grin at the thought that Tifa’s waiting was finally over._

_Of course, it hadn’t been too long after that when they’d all disappeared…_

 

“Ah, Yuffie, you’re finally awake,” she turned her head slightly, and found a man with black hair and a small goatee sitting in one of the chairs a few feet from the side of her bed. He was wearing a long purplish-blue coat, and she absently thought that if she was feeling better she probably would have teased him about it. “Yuffie?” He stood up and took a step toward her. “Do you remember me?” He looked like he was afraid of what her answer might be as he asked this.

“Umm,” she blinked a few times and looked around the room. Sterilized white walls and artificial lighting confirmed her suspicions that she was in hospital. “I’m not sure,” she looked back at him. “You look kind of familiar.”

His looked both relieved and disappointed at the same time.

“But things have been weird for me lately, and uh,” she gestured to the bandage on her head, “I may have hit my head a few more times than is good for me. So my memory’s been kind of patchy about everything.” She smiled at him, and after a few seconds he nodded and smiled back.

“Fair enough. I’m Reeve. We’ve been friends for a long time, and I’m also your boss.” Yuffie was skeptical when he said this, but she let him continue. “I’m the commissioner for the WRO, and -”

“Hold on, what’s the WRO? I saw that on those soldiers’ uniforms, right before I … you know…”

“Fell out of a tree?”

“Yeah.”

Reeve chuckled at her muttered response, then patiently explained what the goal of the WRO was, and answered all of her other questions about what work she did with them.

“Okay, that all sounds legit, but how do you explain my memory loss, and my other memories that don’t match up with what you’re saying?” she crossed her arms and raised one eyebrow.

Reeve studied her for a bit before settling back in his chair. “That’s what I need to talk to you about, Yuffie. We’re not sure what happened to you and Tifa. I was hoping that you could explain a few things, since she left to go look for Cloud.”

“I’ll try, but no promises,” she nodded.

It was a few moments before Reeve spoke again. “Yuffie, do you know how long we’ve been looking for you?” Yuffie shook her head, and Reeve sighed heavily. “You, Tifa, and Cloud have been missing for nearly two years.”

Yuffie nodded slowly. “Okay, I guess … that kind of sounds about right. All of my memories from before that are kind of jumbled up, and that’s where I’m not sure what actually happened. For a while it felt like I had two sets of memories in my head, but now, that other set is starting to fade.” Reeve looked troubled, but didn’t say anymore. “Do you have any idea how this could have happened?”

“At first we thought that you had been kidnapped, but when there were no ransom demands made, we weren’t sure. From what you’ve said, kidnapping doesn’t sound right.” He turned and looked out the window, “I wish Tifa had stayed long enough for me to get her opinion on this.”

“Well, why don’t you ask Zack and Aerith?” Yuffie asked. “You did find them, too, right?”

“We did find a young man named Zack wandering the forest not far from where you were, but Yuffie,” Reeve looked back at her, and she was surprised by the concerned look he gave her, “Aerith died almost six years ago.”

An image flashed in Yuffie’s mind after he said this. _Aerith kneeling in prayer. Yuffie reaching out, about to call to her. A flash of sword, and Sephiroth with his sadistic smile, silver death descending on the flower girl._

Yuffie shook her head to try to rid herself of the image. 

“I know ... that Sephiroth killed her,” she said hesitatingly. “But I also know … that she was with us. She came with me and Tifa to look for Cloud, and when she met Zack they became friends right away. Tifa and I agreed that he had to come with us. We didn’t know why, it just felt right.”

“Alright, I’ll talk to Zack and see what he thinks about all of this.” Reeve stood to leave.

“I’m not crazy,” Yuffie crossed her arms with a huff.

“I never said that you were, Yuffie,” he answered with a hint of amusement.

“Just checking.”

Reeve nodded and went to open the door. Before he could touch the handle, the door swung open. Yuffie’s eyes widened when she saw the man standing there.

“Vincent,” Reeve nodded to the other man as he walked by, leaving the two alone.

 

**_You’ve just gotta keep your eyes open_ **


	7. Chapter 7

**_Everybody’s waiting for you to breakdown_ **

**_Everybody’s watching to see the fallout_ **

**_Even when you’re sleeping, sleeping_ **

 

Yuffie tried to keep calm, but it wasn’t easy. Finally confronted with the man she had been seeing so often in her weird dreams and _memories_ , she could feel tears welling in her eyes, and she didn’t know why. 

“Yuffie,” he didn’t move from the doorway, just looked at her from under a mane of midnight black hair. 

“H-hey,” she stammered, as she tried to think of something to say. Her mind had gone completely blank when he said her name, and all she could focus on was how intense his red eyes were.

He tilted his head to the side a bit, and something flickered in his eyes. _Amusement, maybe?_ She tried to look relaxed, which was difficult since her heart was pounding. _He won’t notice, right? Of course he won’t, I’m the Great Ninja Yuffie! I have the best poker face in the whole world! No, the whole universe! There’s no way that anyone can tell what I’m thinking-_

“Yuffie, are you alright? You seem to be hyperventilating…” There was a measure of concern in his voice, though not many people would have noticed it. “Perhaps I should return when you are feeling better…” he took a step back and turned on his heel, the door swinging closed before Yuffie could so much as blink.

“Wait!” she managed to call, just as the door clicked closed. She waited for a few seconds, but he didn’t come back. _What just happened?_ Yuffie sat up and started to swing her legs out of the bed when the door opened again.

“And just where do you think you’re going?” a nurse asked, raising her eyebrows and giving Yuffie a look that said she had better lie back down.

“Umm, no where … I just,” Yuffie huffed in annoyance and threw herself back against her pillow. “I need to talk to the guy who just left, can you call him back for me? Please?” she added, when the nurse continued to look skeptical.

“I’ll see what I can do. You stay there.” The nurse pointed at Yuffie to emphasize her point. A few minutes later, she returned. “I’m sorry, but Mr. Valentine has left. He’ll be back tomorrow, so you can talk to him then.”

“What makes you think that he’ll be back tomorrow?” Yuffie frowned at the nurse. “And what if I had to tell him something really important?”

“Mr. Valentine has come to the hospital everyday for the past week, Ms. Kisaragi. I highly doubt that he will stay away now that you are finally awake. However, if what you have to say is really that important, I can have someone call him back.”

“No, don’t worry about it. He probably wouldn’t answer his phone anyway,” Yuffie looked away from the nurse, trying to sort through her thoughts and figure out why she was so certain that he wouldn’t answer his phone. Something told her that she knew it from experience, but whenever she tried to latch onto a memory, it would slip away from her. She realized that the nurse was talking again, and turned her attention back to listening.

“- in the meantime, would you like to speak with anyone else? The commissioner of the WRO is still here. I believe he went to talk to one of the other patients.”

“No, I’m good. How long do I have to stay here?” 

“The doctors would like to keep you for at least another three days.”

“WHAT?? THREE DAYS???” Yuffie started to jump up, but stopped when the nurse scowled at her. “But I have to help look for my friends!”

“Yes, well, it might not have been so long if you hadn’t gone exploring the woods with such a severe head wound,” the nurse gave her a disapproving look. “Please stay in bed, Ms. Kisaragi. If that is too difficult for you, a guard will be assigned to your room, to make sure that you don’t go anywhere.”

Yuffie sighed and settled back against the pillows. “Yeah, sure, whatever.”

 

An hour later, Yuffie had flipped through the channels on the t.v. in her room. When that got old, she counted all of the ceiling tiles three times, and now she was holding her breath, to see if she could get the monitor showing her heart rate to flatline.

“Yuffie, what are you doing?”

Yuffie turned her head and found Reeve standing in the doorway, watching her with a bemused expression on his face.

She released the breath that she was holding, “I’m so boooored. There’s nothing for me to do here.”

Reeve laughed and shook his head. “Well maybe this will help,” he said as he stepped out of the doorway. Yuffie smiled when she saw that Zack was standing just outside of her room.

Her smiled faded almost as quickly as it had appeared. “No fair! Why do you get to walk around?” she crossed her arms and huffed in annoyance.

“I’m not the one who’s been unconscious for the past week, kiddo,” Zack grinned and flopped down in the chair next to her bed. “We need to talk.”

“Ya think?”

“Privately,” Zack shot a glance at Reeve, who looked back and forth between the two before nodding.

“I suppose that’s fair. If either of you need me, have one of the hospital staff call me, I’ll be at the WRO headquarters.” Reeve waved goodbye to the two as he left, pulling the door closed behind him.

Zack watched the door for a few seconds, then turned to look at Yuffie. “So, how’re you doing?”

“Alright, I guess. My memories are still just flashes. I can’t hold onto anything for more than a minute or two.” She sighed and closed her eyes. “How about you? Do you remember any more?”

“I remember everything.”

Yuffie’s eyes snapped open, and she stared at him. “Really?” Zack nodded. “So … what you said before … you know, about dying? Is that …”

“It’s true.” He watched her carefully, looking for any sign that she was going to freak out the way that she had the last time. 

“I still don’t know what to think about that…” she looked away. “I had always wondered what happened to you, back when I was younger. I used to … used to …” Yuffie moaned, clutching her head. “It was right there! I was remembering, and now it’s gone!”

“Easy, Yuffie,” Zack put a hand on her shoulder. “Remember what I told you before? You can’t force memories. Just let them come to you.” Yuffie relaxed slowly, and Zack drew back.

“I used to … look for you … before I met Cloud and the gang. I thought that we could be treasure hunting partners.”

“Partners?” Zack sounded skeptical, but when she glanced over at him she saw that he was smiling.

“Yeah, partners. We’d split everything that we found 20-80. You’d fight all the monsters and I’d open the treasure chests!”

“Well, I guess it would have been an improvement from the arrangement that we had before, with me fighting all the monsters and getting nothing.” His smile turned into a wry grin. “Wish I could have been there to help you, Treasure Princess.”

Yuffie felt tears start to form in her eyes, and quickly cleared her throat. “So, you and Aerith …” Zack blushed and looked away. “She told me a little bit of your story, a long time ago. Can you tell me how it ended?”

“Not much to tell. I died saving Cloud from the Shinra army. The Lifestream was kind of boring for a while. It was better once Aerith was there, but it was hard watching all of our friends mourn for her. We tried to help whenever we could, with Meteor, and then again when Geostigma and the Remnants showed up.” 

Zack kept talking, but Yuffie’s mind had latched onto something that he had said, and she could feel another memory surfacing.

 

_Cloud was standing in the pool of water in the middle of the church surrounded by children, looking more relaxed than anyone had seen him in years. After helping Denzel into the pool, more kids started jumping in, their screams and cheers of excitement lifting everyone’s spirits._

_“Last one in’s a rott’n egg!” shouted Cid._

_“It’s working!” Yuffie jumped up and down, cheering along with everyone else._

_When Cloud looked past them, with widened eyes, Yuffie turned, just catching a flashing smile and toss of a braid._ Aerith _... She wanted to call out to her, but knew that she shouldn’t. Leaning against the door was another person that she never thought she would see again. Zack waved to Cloud as he turned to follow Aerith, but his eyes darted to Yuffie for just a moment. The corner of his mouth tugged upwards in a slight smile, before he disappeared with Aerith._

_Yuffie felt a matching smile cross her face, and turned back to the rest of the group._

 

“Yuffie?” Zack was watching her, head tilted slightly to the side. “Remember something?”

“Uh, yeah, I was just thinking about … the last time that I saw you and Aerith, in the church after the Remnants.”

“Ah, yeah I remember that. It was kind of bittersweet, wasn’t it?” he sighed. “Tell me what else you’ve been remembering.”

“Well, most of it’s been focused on one person…”

“That’s how I started, just little memories of Aerith. Then I started to remember other people, but it was still mostly things about her,” he nodded, encouraging her to continue.

“This guy, he was here earlier, maybe you met him. His name’s Vincent,” Zack shook his head, “well, he’s … he’s really annoying, actually. From what I remember, he was always sitting in corner, or going off by himself, so he could brood and be all depressing. He said he had to … to …” Yuffie took a deep breath, “atone, for his sins. He had been in love with a woman, a long time ago, and she broke his heart. He blamed himself for everything that happened to her, but if you ask me, she deserved what she got. We found him in the basement of the Shinra Manor when we were going after Sephiroth. He was-”

“Wait, he wasn’t in a coffin was he?” Yuffie stared wide-eyed at Zack when he said this. 

“How did you know that?”

“I found him sleeping down there when I was at the Manor one time,” Zack shrugged.

“And you just left him there?”

Zack smiled sheepishly, “Heh, yeah. But in my defense, I thought he was a vampire, so I really didn’t want to wake him up.” Yuffie started laughing at this, and Zack soon joined her. 

“Well, I guess it all turned out alright,” Yuffie chuckled. “He ended up being one of my best friends, after all of our adventuring and stuff. I moved into the Manor with him to help fix it up, and never really left. He’s not the best roommate, ‘cause he still had those mood swings where he’d be all depressing for days, but he was getting better. I don’t remember specifics, but I think we had a big fight the last time we saw each other. I wish I could remember what it was about.” She frowned and looked down at her hands.

“You’ll remember,” Zack assured her. “It’ll come to you when you’re not expecting it to, but you’ll remember. Trust me.”

“Thanks, Zack.”

“I’d better go. You should get some sleep,” he stood to leave, but Yuffie grabbed his wrist.

“Where do you think you’re going?” she asked, narrowing her eyes.

“...to the church. They still haven’t found Aerith, and I was going to start looking for her…” he spoke slowly, trying to pull away.

“Sounds good. I’ll come to!” Yuffie flashed her most brilliant smile.

“Yuffie,” Zack tried to pull away again, “you have to stay here. You’re still hurt-”

“Please Zack! If I have to stay here for three more days I’ll DIE of boredom!” she looked up at him with pleading eyes. “I would help you escape, if you were stuck in here!”

Zack glanced at the door, then back at her. “If I leave you here, you’ll find another way out, won’t you?” Yuffie grinned, knowing that she was going to get what she wanted. “Alright, but you have to promise me that you’ll take it easy. I don’t want to be responsible for you getting injured more than you already are.”

“Deal! Now go distract the nurses!”

He smirked and propped the door open before he left the room. Yuffie waited until she heard giggles from down the hall before slipping out of bed. She found her clothes sitting neatly in a corner. They had been cleaned, but that did little to improve the tears that had accumulated over the past few weeks. _They’ll have to do…_

Slipping out the door, she saw Zack leaning on the desk at the nurses’ station, flirting shamelessly with every woman in sight. _Oh Aerith, you must have your hands full with this one_ , she thought with a smile. It was easy to sneak down another hallway and find the stairs. Nearly ten minutes later, Zack found her lounging on a bench outside of the hospital.

“What took you so long?” she yawned, standing up to stretch.

“Very funny. I had to come up with an excuse for not accepting any of their phone numbers.” Zack started walking down the road. “Some of those nurses were really persistent. And it’s not like I could tell them I have a girlfriend after what I said to keep their attention away from you.”

“Thanks,” Yuffie smiled as she walked beside him. “I really appreciate it.”

“Sure thing. Just don’t make me regret it.”

Yuffie nodded absently. She felt just a little bit guilty about disappearing without leaving a note. _He never left a note when he disappeared. That’s why…_

 

_Yuffie sat at the kitchen table in the Shinra Manor, frozen. It had been two days since she’d woken up and realized that Vincent was gone. At first she just thought that he had gone out to the store, but when he didn’t return that day, she became worried. She had run into town and asked everyone she saw if they knew anything about where he was. No one had seen him._

_Searching the immediate area hadn’t turned up anything, so she had returned home to think. There were no notes anywhere, and no signs that he had been taken by force. A quick search of his room revealed that he had taken a few of his things, but not everything. Sitting down at the table, Yuffie realized that what little evidence there was suggested that he had taken a brief trip somewhere. (But that makes no sense, why would he take a trip without telling her? Unless…) He was going to see_ her. _Of course._

_He hadn’t been to see_ her _since the Omega incident, when Shelke had found him in_ her _cave. Yuffie had assumed that he had finally moved on, but it seemed that she was wrong. She felt numb; so much so, that she didn’t bother moving from where she was until the next afternoon, when she heard the front door open, and the sound of metallic shoes crossing the floor of the front hall._

_“Where have you been?” she asked, her voice deadly quiet._

_All she got in response was a deadpan stare._

_“You didn’t tell me you were leaving.”_

_“…”_

_“You didn’t bother to leave a note. Which I would have actually bothered to read this time, for your information.”_

_“Yuffie…”_

_“Don’t you ‘Yuffie’ me! Why didn’t you say something to me, Vince?! Just so that I would know that you were okay?”_

_“Yuf-”_

_“Don’t! Don’t say anything! I’m not finished yet! You have no idea how worried I was when I realized that you were gone! Something could have happened to you, and I wouldn’t have known where to look! I wouldn’t have been able to come and help you! Sure, this time wasn’t as bad as that whole thing with Omega, but I was still worried, Vince! You can’t just go disappearing like that without telling someone where you’re going!”_

_“I apologize. I did not know that my absence would cause you such distress.”_

_“You bet it caused me distress! I don’t think I can take it if you disappear on me like that again!”_

_Vincent sighed. “What must I do to make it up to you?”_

_“Promise me that you’ll never do that again! You have to tell me before you go off for days at a time. And you have to tell me where you’re going. And how long you’ll be gone.”_

_“Is that all?”_

_Yuffie glared at him, “That’s all. For now.”_

_“Very well. I promise. But you must promise me the same.”_

_“What?”_

_“You must tell me when you are going to be gone for extended periods of time, where you plan on going, and how long you will be gone. It is only fair.”_

_Yuffie grumbled her agreement before stomping up the stairs to her room._

 

Yuffie shook her head and kept walking beside Zack.

 

**_Keep your ey-eyes open_ **

**_Keep your ey-eyes open_ **

**_Keep your ey-eyes_ **


	8. Chapter 8

**_Keep your feet ready_ **

**_Heartbeat steady_ **

**_Keep your eyes open_ **

 

By the time Zack and Yuffie reached the church, it was well past midnight, and they both felt exhausted. The sight of the church standing tall amidst the ruins of the city both lifted and darkened Yuffie’s spirits, which confused her, but she pushed the feeling aside as she followed Zack up the stairs. One of the doors was opened slightly, and Yuffie held her breath as Zack reached out to push it open.

“What if she’s not there,” Yuffie whispered. Zack looked at her over his shoulder, one eyebrow raised slightly in question. “I mean, what will we do then? If she’s not there, where do we look?”

Zack sighed and ran his fingertips over the door’s rough surface. “If she’s not here, we’ll rest for the night, and leave tomorrow to look elsewhere,” he said, keeping his tone light. Yuffie almost missed the slight hitch in his voice, and felt bad for asking a question that he had obviously already considered.

“Okay,” she nodded and took a step closer to him.

He watched her for a moment, then turned and pushed the door open, stepping inside at an angle so that Yuffie could stand beside him.

The night was cloudy, so there was very little moonlight coming in through the holes in the roof. The two friends walked up the aisle, stepping lightly so that they made as little noise as possible. Yuffie could feel the tension rising with each step they took, and when a faint rustling echoed through the room she bit back a shriek, scrambling behind Zack. He stood frozen in front of her, and as she peeked around him, a little more moonlight seeped in through the roof.

Aerith was kneeling at the edge of a small pool, an amused smile crossing her face. She stood slowly and brushed the dirt off of her hands.

“It looks like the flowers are doing well,” she said softly, beckoning them forward.

“Yeah,” Zack came up beside her and put his hand on her arm. “We could still do it, you know,” at her look of confusion he continued, “Operation: Midgar full of flowers…”

Aerith smiled again, this time a warm smile meant just for him. Yuffie looked away, feeling like she was intruding. The white and yellow flowers that lined the pool were in better shape than she remembered, and she was glad the her friend had found her former sanctuary in good shape.

“Yuffie, are you alright?” Aerith asked, her hand on the younger girl’s elbow as she lead her to the nearest pew. “You look pale.”

“Oh, I’m fine. Just, you know, trying to take all of this in,” she waved her hands vaguely.

Zack moved so that he could see her more clearly. “I probably shouldn’t have brought her with me. She’s still recovering from some head wounds.”

Aerith whirled on him, her hands on her hips, her voice going shrill with annoyance, “And you decided to bring her here? At this time of night?” Zack held up his hands, trying to fend her off. “Really, Zack, I thought you had more sense than that! She needs to be in bed resting!”

“Hey, hey, it’s not my fault, okay! If I left her at the hospital, she would have just found a way to follow me. This way I could keep an eye on her.”

“Well,” Aerith gave him a stern look, “you could have waited until morning.”

“But I had to find you…” the desperation in his eyes was enough to mollify her, and she sighed.

“I’m glad that you did. I’ve been alone since I woke up after the crash. I made my way here because I knew that if anyone was looking for me they would come here eventually. So much has changed since …” she looked away. “I wasn’t sure where else to go.” They sat in awkward silence for several minutes before Yuffie spoke.

“So, do you remember everything, or just pieces?” 

The flower girl looked her, her green eyes observant. “I remembered everything when I woke up after the crash.”

“Seriously?” Zack’s eyes widened. “Everything, all at once?” Aerith nodded. “Wow. I only remembered bits and pieces for a while, before it all came back. And Yuffie’s still got some blank spots, but it’s coming back to her slowly.”

Aerith’s eyes narrowed at this, and she brushed her hair away from her face as she gave the ninja a concerned look. “Your injuries may be affecting your memory recovery, Yuffie, you just need a little more time. What about Tifa? Does she remember?”

“I’m not sure, but I think so,” Zack leaned against the back of the pew where Yuffie was sitting. “I didn’t get to talk to her much before she left, she was too focused on finding Cloud.”

“Cloud is still missing?” Aerith paced a few steps away. “If his memories have started to come back, he may not be able to cope with them. It will feel too much like before, when he took on your persona, Zack. We need to find him, soon, and help him if he needs it.”

“Great idea, but we have no idea where he is,” Yuffie crossed her arms and huffed, “he might not even be on the planet. We’re not sure if he made it back here.”

Aerith clasped her hands underneath of her chin and closed her eyes. “He’s here, somewhere. I can feel it.” Her eyes opened again. “And I have an idea of where we can start looking.”

Yuffie bounced to her feet, flinching just a bit, and gave Zack and Aerith a sunny smile. “Well, what are we waiting for? Let’s get to it! Spikes isn’t going to find himself.”

“Yuffie,” Aerith sighed, “please-”

“Don’t tell me to stay here, Aerith, I’m coming with you! And c’mon, seriously, we need to get going. Before anyone comes looking for me. I don’t wanna go back to that hospital room, it’s so boooooring.”

Aerith studied Yuffie again, before nodding. “Alright. We’ll get what supplies we can on our way out of the city.” She glanced back at the flowers one last time before walking to the door. Zack gave Yuffie an “after-you” gesture, and they followed the flower girl out into the streets.

 

“So, Aerith, you said you think you know where Cloud is?” Yuffie asked. Now that they were crossing the open field to the west of Midgar’s ruins, she had stopped worrying about being caught, and allowed herself to relax a little bit, but she still felt tense.

Aerith’s mouth twisted into a frown, and she sighed. “I don’t know for sure, but I have a feeling that he might be in Nibelheim.” 

“You don’t sound so happy about that,” Zack looked concerned, “what’s wrong with him being in Nibelheim?”

“It’s not that there’s anything wrong with him being in Nibelheim,” Aerith bit her lip and looked ahead. “I’m just concerned about why he chose there, of all places. It doesn’t exactly hold the best memories for him.” She shook her head. “The sooner we find him, the better.”

“Okay, sure, we need to find him as soon as possible, but what makes you think that he went to Nibelheim?” Yuffie kicked a stone along the path in front of her and looked questioningly at Aerith.

“Probably for the same reason that I went to the church,” Aerith trailed off slightly.

“But you said you went to the church so that we would find you,” Yuffie scrunched her nose, “If Cloud wanted to be found he should’ve just come to Edge.”

“That wasn’t the only reason that I went to the church, Yuffie,” Aerith looked over her shoulder at the ninja girl. “Even though I remembered everything about who I was, I still needed to … remind myself.” Aerith looked away. “I think Cloud would go to Nibelheim to remind himself of who he is, and where he came from.”

Yuffie nodded, “Oh, I guess that makes sense,” but she turned and gave Zack a questioning look. He wasn’t paying any attention, instead watching the skyline.

“I wouldn’t mind going to Gongaga, for a little while,” he said, mostly to himself. 

Yuffie rolled her eyes. _Why do they need to remind themselves who they are? This is so lame, why are you guys making such a big deal about it?_

“Well, Miss Smartypants,” Zack’s tone made her cringe as she realized that she’d spoken out loud, “you must not have any doubts about these new memories that you’ve been dealing with lately.” 

“Why would I have doubts?” she demanded, raising her chin and looking him in the eye. “I know who I am. I’ve always know who I am. I’m the greatest ninja ever! I stand for what I know is right and I help my friends! I don’t need my memories to tell me that.”

Aerith moved between the two when she saw Zack start to respond. “Calm down, both of you. Let’s just keep walking, and worry about this later.” Zack stepped back and nodded stiffly. Yuffie stayed a few feet behind the other two as they continued their trek to Nibelheim.

She didn’t know why she had snapped at Zack that way, he hadn’t done anything wrong. Something was making her feel unnerved, and she kept getting the feeling that she was being watched. Yuffie glanced over her shoulder, but didn’t see anything. She sighed quietly and thought about what Zack had said.

She was still missing some memories, but she didn’t feel the need to go running back to Wutai to get in touch with her former self. Yuffie looked up at the sky, pitch black and not a star in sight. As she stared, a memory surfaced, reminding her of a time when she had doubted herself. The only time she had ever felt that way.

 

_Nero was talking about rebirths and knowledge granting, staring at Vincent like they shared some sort of secret. Yuffie tried to follow the conversation, but she knew that she was missing something important. She had a very bad feeling about what was going on, and it didn’t get any better when Weiss’s body was surrounded by an almost blinding light. She spun to face him, with Conformer ready, and Vince drew Cerberus._

_She realized what a huge mistake it had been to turn their backs on Nero when he screamed at them to stay away from his brother. The next thing she knew, a streak of darkness was headed right towards her, and then she was falling into nothing._

_Yuffie wasn’t sure how long she fell (was it really just seconds? It felt like years, decades, lifetimes…), surrounded by darkness and haunting screams. The screams got louder, muffled voices, moans of pain, but still there was nothing to see besides the inky darkness. She put her hands over her ears and screamed, trying to drown out the other noises. As each second ticked past, she could feel herself slipping away, becoming a shadow, a ghost of who she was. (who am I, what’s my name?)_

_Just when she couldn’t take it anymore, when she knew she would break, a light erupted behind her, chasing away the darkness. Strong arms wrapped around her shoulders, lifted her up, and then she could breathe again._

_When she opened her eyes, Yuffie found herself lying on the ground, with Vincent standing over her. (Vince saved me … he came … he saved me …) He looked down into her storm gray eyes, and Yuffie could see the concern in them (that’s right … that’s when I realized that I loved him … well, I mean, I knew before … but I definitely knew after that)._

_“You alright?” he asked._

_Yuffie tried to keep her voice from trembling, “What the heck was that?”_

_And then Nero was back, spewing more of his creepy talk about death and darkness. Before she could come up with a decent response, Nero had disappeared, this time with Vincent, and she was left alone._

_By the time Vincent reappeared, Yuffie had decided to keep her mouth shut (I know, first time ever, right?) and play it cool. There would be plenty of time to talk once the whole Deepground thing had been resolved._

 

_In the aftermath of Omega, Yuffie could feel herself slipping back into that ghost of herself that she had become in the darkness. She hated herself for not saying something to him when she had the chance, and now she might never be able to tell him._

_When they found him in_ her _cave, Yuffie felt relief, but at the same time, she felt her heart breaking. (How can I tell him now?)_

 

Yuffie blinked several times, and looked around. The sky was starting to turn a pinkish-gray, and she sighed in relief. She wasn’t sure if she could have handled more of the night sky after that memory. 

_I guess I should apologize to Zack_ , she thought, but when she went to speak, she realized that she had fallen behind him and Aerith. She could see them in the distance, but she would have to run to catch up to them. Yuffie groaned when she thought about running, knowing that she would regret it, but also knowing that she would do it anyway.

She settled into a slow jog, grimacing at the slight headache that formed. She hadn’t gone more than a few steps when someone grabbed her arm from behind and spun her around.

“Yuffie.”

“Uh, h-hey … Vince,” she gave him a shaky smile, and tried to ignore how angry he looked. “What’s up?”

 

**_Keep your aim locked_ **

**_The night goes dark_ **

**_Keep your eyes open_ **


	9. Chapter 9

**_Keep your eyes open_ **

**_Keep your eyes open_ **

 

“Yuffie.”

Yuffie cringed as she looked up at Vincent, his bright red eyes narrowed in frustration. She tried to think of something to say, but nothing was coming to mind. She glanced over her shoulder to see where Zack and Aerith were, and breathed a sigh of relief when she saw that they were walking back towards her.

“L-look, Vinny, I know you’re mad. I mean, you probably went to see me at the hospital, and they must’ve been all freaking out because I left without permission when they said I had to stay, but seriously, what was I supposed to do for another THREE days? I would have DIED of boredom! I can’t do NOTHING for that long! I mean, come on, everyone knows that I get all fidgety when I have to sit still for more than five minutes, and I’m supposed to stay in a hospital for THREE DAYS? Whose bright idea was-”

“Yuffie.” Vincent interrupted, his tone dark.

“Yes?”

“I received a phone call just before midnight, informing me that you were missing. Again.” Vincent looked over her shoulder and his eyes widened slightly. Before Yuffie could say anything he had turned his attention back to her. “I ... we have spent the past two years looking for you,” Yuffie wondered at the slight blush that colored his cheeks when he had started to say _I_. It disappeared almost immediately, and she decided that it would be better not to say anything about it. “I had hoped that it would be some time before we had to search for you again.”

_Oh…_ Yuffie closed her eyes and hung her head, _I guess I should have thought about that a little more…_

“I’m sorry, Vince,” she bit her lip and looked up at him through her bangs. His gaze softened, and he nodded, then looked over her shoulder again.

“Yuffie?” she turned to find Zack and Aerith standing a few yards away. “Everything okay?”

“Sure! Everything’s fine! We were just talking. Nothing to see here!” She bounced on her toes a few times, and hoped that no one noticed how she flinched at the movement. “We’re on our way to Nibelheim, to see if we can find Cloud,” she explained to Vincent. “You should come! If we run into any monsters you can totally kick their butts. Not that I couldn’t handle it, but it would be easier if you were with us.” _And I don’t think I’d be able to do very much, with this headache coming back every time I make a sudden move…_

Vincent gave her a look that fell somewhere between amusement and concern. _Oh, so he did notice… of course he did, it’s Vince. Now I’m gonna get another lecture about running around with a head wound..._

“As you wish,” he said with a slight incline of his head.

“Great,” Zack gestured for them to follow him, “we still have a long walk, so let’s go.” He set off at a brisk pace, not bothering to wait for the others.

Aerith watched Vincent for a moment, then said, “It’s good to see you again, Vincent.”

“And you, as well, Miss Gainsborough,” he replied simply, as if he ran into long dead friends everyday. Aerith smiled and ran to catch up with Zack, laughing softly to herself.

Yuffie watched as Zack stepped off of the path to pick a flower for Aerith, kissing her quickly as he handed it to her, and the two continued walking, now holding hands. Yuffie sighed and turned to Vincent.

“Come on. They’ve already left me behind once today.” She could see the laughter in his eyes as she said this.

They had only taken a few steps when Yuffie stumbled. She caught herself and kept walking, but she reached up to massage her temples, trying to ease her headache.

She heard Vincent sigh, and thought, _Here it comes. The lecture._  

Instead, she opened her eyes to find him holding out a Restore materia, and watching her with a pained expression.

Yuffie looked back and forth, from Vincent to the materia, several times before yelling, “Why the heck didn’t you use that before???” She snatched it out of his hand and cast Cure on herself, sagging in relief as the pain vanished.

“We weren’t sure how it would affect you, and healing naturally would have been better.” Yuffie ignored the reproachful look that he gave her, and skipped off after Zack and Aerith.

“I don’t know why you’re so worried about me, Vince,” she called over her shoulder. “Wasn’t I always the one worrying over you?”

 

_Four days had passed since Yuffie returned to the Shinra Manor after spending a week in Wutai, and Vincent was still not home. She tried not to panic._ After all, _she thought,_ I did tell him that I was going to be gone for at least two weeks. _Her visit was cut short when her father started talking to her about marriage and her duty to Wutai. No way was she going to stick around after that conversation. She could see the gears turning in Godo’s head, and knew he would try some stupid scheme before the end of her visit, so she packed her bags and took off later that night._

_Now, she was stuck moping around the Manor, with absolutely nothing to do. None of her calls to Vincent got through, although she did reach Nanaki on the third day that she had been home. He told her that Vincent had spent several days in Cosmo Canyon, but had left a few days before._

_Yuffie couldn’t decide whether or not she should be worried. It wasn’t a long trip from Cosmo Canyon to Nibelheim, so he really should be home already. The only reasons she could think of for his continued absence were that he had been attacked by monsters and was now lying, dead or dying, in a ditch somewhere (unlikely, the man was near indestructible) or that he had made a stop along the way (and of course, it wasn’t hard to guess where he would have stopped; a certain cave wasn’t too far off the path he would take to come home). Yuffie could feel the anger and heartache steadily building. Things had been going so well, she was sure that he was finally getting over_ her _, but it seemed she was wrong._

_Another day passed, and Yuffie kept herself busy by hunting through Vincent’s things. He would be mad when he found out, but she wouldn’t have done it if he had been home, so technically it was his fault, not hers. She was disappointed not to find any materia in his room, then remembered the hidden safe that he thought she didn’t know about in the library. Skipping down the hallway, she tried to convince herself that she would feel better once she stole - ahem,_ borrowed _\- every last piece of materia he owned, along with any other interesting things that she found in the safe._

_It didn’t take her long to crack open the safe, and Yuffie grinned. In the back of the safe, beneath a scattering of papers, she found a Mystify, a Full Cure, and a Master Summon._ My, my, Vinny, you’ve been holding holding out on me _, she pocketed the materia and tossed the papers around, making sure there were no other treasures hidden underneath them. When nothing caught her interest, she closed the safe and ran to her room to put her new materia with the rest of her collection._

_As she stuffed one of her socks with the new additions, her gaze drifted to the photo sitting on top of her dresser. Tifa had taken it a few days after Vincent returned from the Omega incident. It showed Vincent sitting in a corner at Seventh Heaven, Yuffie next to him in the middle of a very animated monologue, gesturing with her hands, and Vincent watching her, an almost-smile on his face._

_The brief feeling of triumph faded, and Yuffie knew that no matter how much materia she found, it wouldn’t make her feel any better. Vincent would never feel the same way about her that she did about him. Even if he did, he would never act on it, being too caught up with his feeling about_ her _._

_Yuffie could feel tears forming in her eyes, and considered, just this once, letting herself cry. The sound of the front door opening dashed that idea to pieces, and she took a deep breath, inhaling through her nose, to steady herself. Rubbing her eyes furiously, she stood at the open door to her room, listening to Vincent move around on the first floor._

_Sneaking down the stairs was easy, since they’d fixed every broken and squeaky board. She stood in the doorway to one of the front rooms, silently watching as Vincent set down his traveling gear and removed his cloak. When he turned towards her, he jumped, and she was rewarded with one of his rare surprised expressions._

_“Yuffie?” he spoke her name tentatively, taking quick stock of her appearance, but not once meeting her eyes._

_“Vincent.” She crossed her arms and kept her steely gaze focused on him._

_“Is something wrong?” he was still avoiding eye contact and cast a glance over his shoulder at his cloak. She could tell that he felt vulnerable without it on, since he couldn’t hide behind the cowl._

_“No. Why would something be wrong?”_

_“You look upset…”_

_“I just don’t understand why you’re wasting your time.”_

_“…” He watched her out of the corner of his eye, and if she had been in a better mood she might have laughed at how nervous he looked. “Yuffie, what -”_

_“I don’t understand why you’re wasting your time on someone who never loved you. Someone who could never love you.” She didn’t mean for her tone to be that harsh, but the look he gave her, confusion and just a little bit of hurt, kept her from apologizing. “Don’t act like you don’t know what I’m talking about, Vincent.” He winced at her use of his full name instead of a nickname._

_“Yuffie…” he hung his head, a curtain of dark hair covering his face so that all she could see was a brief glimmer of red eyes between the midnight black strands._

_She ignored the slight hitch that she heard in his voice and forged ahead, taking a step toward him. “Why do you insist on spending so much time with the Queen of Popsicles when you have people who care about you?!” Vincent’s head jerked up, and he stared at her with wide eyes. “You’re so hung up on her, convinced that she loved you. Well, you know what? She never loved you. If you would just open your eyes, you would realize that. She_ never _loved you. How could she, with the things she did to you? If you love someone, you would never put them through so much pain!” He opened his mouth to speak, but Yuffie was on a roll now, and she wouldn’t let him stop her. “Don’t try to tell me that I don’t know what I’m talking about! Because I do!” The tears she had forced back earlier were now running down her face. “I would never hurt you the way that she did. Ever. You know why? Because I love you, Vincent Valentine!”_

_Yuffie turned and ran as fast as she could, throwing the front door open and dashing into the woods. She prayed that he wouldn’t follow her, because she knew that she couldn’t handle listening to him defend_ her _._

_After a few hours passed, Yuffie managed to calm down enough to go back to the Manor. The sun had long since set, and all of the lights in the house were turned off. Yuffie walked slowly through the entire house, looking in every room, but she found no sign of Vincent. She searched the house again, this time looking for a note, or some sign that would tell her where he went. She found nothing._

_She collapsed on the couch in the living room, too exhausted to cry anymore._ That’s it _, she thought,_ he broke his promise. He left without telling me. Not that I blame him, I guess. He probably won’t come back here if I stay. Do I even want to stay? I can’t stay here with him, not after this. Not if he doesn’t want to move on. I have to leave…

_She slowly pulled herself off of the couch, and went up to her room. As she was packing her bag, she noticed two boxes sitting on the nightstand beside her bed. She picked up the first, studying the label, and raised an eyebrow when she opened it to find a jar of her favorite polish for Conformer. She had been meaning to ask Cloud or Tifa to send her some from Edge, since it was the only place where it was sold. The next box surprised her even more. It was from the sweet shop in Costa del Sol, and she remembered mentioning something to Vincent, shortly before her trip to Wutai, about how she had been craving saltwater taffy._

_Yuffie felt even more confused than before, but she stuffed the two boxes into her bag and finished packing._

_Three days later, she strode into Seventh Heaven like she owned the place, and told Tifa she would be staying for a while. The barmaid barely gave her a second glance, just nodded and asked for her help with the bar when she was finished unpacking._

 

They were almost to Nibelheim when Yuffie realized that Vincent was looking at her strangely. He had been looking at her strangely for a while, now that she thought about it, though she had no idea why.

“Do I have something on my face?” she asked, crossing her eyes when she looked at him.

Vincent studied her, amusement evident in his eyes, and shook his head.

“Well, what is it then?” She sighed when he shook his head again. “Whatever.” She looked ahead to where Zack and Aerith were walking, and smiled when she saw that they were still holding hands.

“You have been … quiet, Yuffie,” Vincent said softly from beside her. She looked at him with one eyebrow raised. “It is … unlike you.” He reached out, but didn’t quite touch her, then pulled his hand back.

“I told you, Vince, you don’t have to worry about me so much. I’m fine. Really,” she gave him her brightest smile, “I’m just glad to be home.” 

Vincent tilted his head slightly, then nodded. “I am glad, as well.”

“Yeah, well,” she turned away, feeling nervous all of a sudden. “Oh look! There’s the gate to Nibelheim!” She ran past Zack and Aerith, and didn’t stop until she was in front of the water tower in the center of town. “So guys, where exactly do you think Cloud is?” she spun in a circle with her arms outstretched. “I mean, I’d hate to spend time searching _all_ these buildings.” She laughed and put her hands on her hips, while the others just rolled their eyes. Vincent didn’t look like he was going to try to continue their conversation, and Yuffie mentally patted herself on the back for dodging it.

 

**_Keep your eyes open_ **

**_Keep your eyes open_ **


	10. Chapter 10

**_Everybody’s waiting for you to breakdown_ **

**_Everybody’s watching to see the fallout_ **

**_Even when your sleeping, sleeping_ **

 

Zack led the way to one of the houses that sat back a little bit behind the others. He knocked on the door and took a step back. When no one came to the door, he turned to the others.

“This is where Cloud’s mom lived when I was here before,” he shrugged and looked at Aerith. “What do you think we should do?”

The flower girl clasped her hands under her chin and closed her eyes in thought. “It wouldn’t hurt to look inside,” she opened her eyes and looked worriedly at the house.

Zack tried to open the door. “It’s locked.” He glared at it for a moment, then his expression brightened considerably. “I could kick it down,” he suggested with a grin.

“Zack! You can’t just break someone’s door down,” Aerith scolded. “There has to be an easier way to get inside.”

“Don’t worry, the Great Ninja Yuffie will take care of this!” Yuffie shoved Zack out of the way and inspected the lock. “Oh, this’ll be easy! Just give me a minute to get some stuff.” She spun on her heel and ran out of town, towards Shinra Manor.

When she reached the Manor, she threw the door open and was halfway up the stairs before she stopped. Turning in a slow circle, Yuffie scrunched up her nose in confusion. She ran a finger along the bannister and scowled at the amount of dust that she found. _What is going on here?_ she thought, looking over the bannister at the dust on the floor. There were a few tracks in the dust in the main hall, but they were so old that more dust had covered them and it was difficult to tell whose they might have been. More tracks went up the stairs, and Yuffie cocked her head as she started to ascend again. _Vincent’s been in here, but this place is still filthy … no way Mr. Neat Freak could have come through here without having a heart attack … but who else wears such pointy shoes?_

Yuffie followed the tracks to her bedroom and stared at the closed door, unsure of what she would find on the other side. After taking a deep breath, she turned the handle and opened the door.

Everything was just as she remembered; her pictures and a few trinkets that she’d left behind were still displayed on top of her dresser, her closet doors were half open and several pairs of shoes were scattered around. Although, as she looked around, she noticed several things that seemed out of place. The room was free of the dirt that had taken over the rest of the house, only a thin layer of dust had settled over the room, and she realized that it must have been cleaned recently. There were fresh sheets on the bed, and it was made far too neatly for her tastes. And then there were the books. 

Vincent had insisted on having a bookshelf in nearly every room, saying something about how people didn’t read as much as they used to and everyone really should have more appreciation for books and blah blah blah. Yuffie had tuned him out when she heard the word “books,” because honestly, who had time to sit and read novels all day long? She had much more important things to do, but she agreed to put a small bookshelf in the room she had claimed as her own, if only to get him to leave her alone about the whole thing. He had given her a few short novels, _classics_ , he called them, and encouraged her to look at them on long winter nights when there was nothing else for her to do. She had tried reading in front of the fireplace, like he did all the time, but eventually gave up in favor of organizing her materia and shooting them across the floor like marbles.

Looking at her bookshelf now, she was surprised to find, amongst the books he had given her, copies of _Crime and Punishment_ , _Don Quixote_ , and _The Complete Collection of Edgar Allan Poe,_ to name a few. As she read the titles, she realized that she had seen these particular copies before, scattered around the house. They were Vincent’s favorites, the ones that he always read, re-read, and read again, within the span of a month. _What are they doing in here?_ she wondered, looking around the room again.

Yuffie shook her head and moved to the bedside table, opening the drawer and digging around until she found one of her lock-picking kits. She glanced around the room one more time, then left, jogging back to town.

Zack and Aerith were sitting on the front step of the house, and Vincent was no where in sight. Yuffie knelt down in front of the door and started picking through her tools.

“So, where’d Vince go?” she tried to sound nonchalant as she started fiddling with the lock.

“He said he had to make a call,” Zack answered, watching Yuffie with an amused expression.

“Oh.” She twisted her wrist and heard the lock pop. She stood and brushed her hands off with a grin. “Okay, let’s see what goodies Spikes has stashed in here!”

“Yuffie, we shouldn’t go barging in,” Aerith pulled the young ninja back, “we don’t want to scare anyone.”

“Oh, come on, Aerith, if anyone was home they would’ve answered the door,” Yuffie moaned in protest.

“Still, I’d like to go in first,” Aerith said softly, but Yuffie could tell by the look in her eyes that there would be no argument on this point.

Aerith walked ahead of them, her steady footsteps echoing through the house. She stopped in the middle of the one room house and looked around. The only light came from the open door, and when she turned back to face Yuffie and Zack she clasped her hands in front of her and shook her head.

“Are you a ghost?” All three of them jumped when they heard the whisper.

“Eeek! Who’s there?!” Yuffie jumped behind Zack and peeked around him.

Aerith turned, facing one of the darker corners. “No, we’re not ghosts,” she took a few steps forward. “Cloud?”

“Am I dead?”

“No, Cloud, you’re not dead,” Aerith felt along the wall for a light switch, but didn’t find one. She glanced over her shoulder at Zack and nodded for him to search along the other wall.

“Then how are you here? You were dead. You can’t just come back to life,” Cloud murmured.

Zack found the switch and flipped on the lights. “What, you mean you’re not happy to see us? C’mon, Cloud, what kind of greeting is this?”

“Zack!” Aerith gave him a glare that clearly said _Shut Up!_ and turned back to Cloud. Cloud was curled in a ball on the bed in the corner, watching the three of them with wary eyes.

“What’s happening?” Cloud pulled at his hair, closing his eyes and shaking his head repeatedly. “I don’t … I can’t …” Aerith went to reach for him, but he jerked back and his shaking became worse. “Sephiroth … he was dead, too … but then he came back … he came back again … and Tifa … Tifa … where’s Tifa?” Cloud screamed, and Aerith pulled back, ushering Zack and Yuffie out of the house.

“This is what I was afraid of,” she said once they were outside. “Tifa might be able to help, but I don’t know what else we can do.”

“Tifa is on her way,” Vincent appeared beside them. “I spoke with Reeve. He said that she will be here in a few hours.”

“Thank you, Vincent,” Aerith sighed. “I hate the idea of leaving him by himself, but I don’t think we should go in there again.” She frowned, and looked back at the house.

“What is it?” Zack asked.

“What he said about Sephiroth…”

“You don’t think…”

Aerith turned to face Zack. “There’s no reason to think that he’s not alive. Cloud won’t be able to tell us anything for a while. If Sephiroth is alive, we could be wasting time.” She looked at Yuffie and Vincent. “You two should stay here until Tifa comes, and make sure that nothing happens to Cloud.” She glanced back and forth between the two of them, and Yuffie got the uneasy feeling that Aerith had spoken to Vincent about her while she was gone. “Zack,” Aerith turned back to the ex-SOLDIER, “we can start looking for any signs that Sephiroth is alive.”

Zack nodded. “Where should we start? If he was like us when he got back, he would want to go somewhere familiar.” He thought for a moment. “Maybe the old Shinra Building? He spent a lot of time there in SOLDIER. I don’t know that much about his past before that,” he shrugged.

“It’s a start,” Aerith agreed.

“Then we better get moving. See ya around, Treasure Princess,” Zack saluted her, gave a brief wave to Vincent, and strode off down the path.

Aerith watched him, with something like amusement in her eyes, before saying goodbye and following him.

“We’ll let you know if we find anything!” Zack shouted.

Yuffie stared after them for a while before she turned back to Vincent.

“I can’t believe they’re gone again,” she sighed. “I mean, I know we’ll see them again, but it’s been so long, it’s hard to believe that they’re back, ya know? I never realized how much I depended on them when they were alive the first time. Wow, that’s weird to say. It sounds weird, don’t you think? Would they be considered zombies, since they’re technically undead? Is this the start of the zombie apocalypse? Because that would be awesome! We would totally be survival buddies, Vince! But it would suck if we had to kill-”

“Yuffie.”

“Huh?”

“Please stop talking.”

“But Vinny! This is serious! This could be a life and death situation! We need to start making plans now before it’s too late!” She gasped. “That’s what Sephiroth’s plan is this time! He’s going to start the zombie apocalypse and take over the planet with the undead! We have to warn everyone! Where’s your phone??”

Vincent looked up at the sky with a look that clearly said _Why me?_ “Yuffie, I am not giving you my phone. If you need me, I will be at the Manor.” His cloak flared dramatically behind him as he turned and walked away.

“Fine! We’ll see how long you last when the undead come knocking down your door! You’ll be begging me to come rescue you!”

Vincent didn’t give any sign that he heard her.

 

Two and a half hours later, Yuffie was sprawled across the step in front of Cloud’s house, watching a caterpillar inch it’s way through the grass.

“‘Stay here until Tifa comes,’ she said. ‘Make sure nothing happens to Cloud,’ she said,” Yuffie whined. “What’s gonna happen to Cloud? He’s not gonna come out of the house and go crazy. No one’s gonna come and try to kill him. Why do I have to guard him? This is so boooooring.” She sat up and looked around town. No one was outside, so she didn’t have anyone to talk to, and no way was she going to try to talk to Cloud. _Why did Vince have to leave me here by myself?_

Yuffie huffed and stood, putting her hands on her hips as she stared at the entrance to Nibelheim. “What is taking Tifa so long?” The words were barely out of Yuffie’s mouth when Tifa came running full speed through the town gate, a dozen WRO soldiers trying to keep up with her.

“Yuffie! Where’s Cloud?” Tifa barely stopped long enough for Yuffie to point at the house before she barreled past and closed the door behind her. Yuffie stood staring at the door for a few seconds, wondering what she should do. 

She doubted that Tifa needed her help, so she turned to the WRO members who were trying not to gasp like fish out of water. “Wow, you guys must be really out of shape,” she laughed. “How long have you been running?”

“Since she got the call,” one of them managed to say.

Yuffie laughed again. “Okay, well if she asks where I went, tell her I’m at the Manor, ‘kay?” They all nodded, and she trotted off, wondering what Vincent had been doing for the past few hours. As she approached the Manor, she noticed that the front door and all of the windows were open. The front hall had been swept free of dirt, the cobwebs were brushed off of the chandelier, and the floors had been scrubbed. Yuffie moved to hallway that led to the kitchen and stood with her arms crossed.

Vincent had removed his cloak and tied his hair back, and was down on his hands and knees with a bucket of soapy water and a rag, scrubbing the worn floorboards. He didn’t give any sign that he knew she was there, and she wondered if she would be able to scare him. He reached into the bucket and pulled out a second rag, throwing it at her without so much as glancing her way.

“Start over there,” he pointed to a spot down the hallway. Yuffie opened her mouth to protest, but he interrupted her, “Unless you would rather be bored while you wait for me to finish.”

She closed her mouth with a snap, gritting her teeth as she walked past him. “I hate cleaning,” she mumbled as she grabbed the rag and attacked the floor. Several minutes passed while the two cleaned in silence. Yuffie watched Vincent out of the corner of her eye and noticed how he kept himself angled away from her. She couldn’t take the silence anymore, so she asked, “How did this place get so dirty, anyway? You used to freak out if I tracked a little mud inside, and this is way worse.”

Vincent sighed and shifted so that he could stretch. “It is what happens when a house sits empty for two years, especially in a place such as Nibelheim.”

“Wait a sec! You mean you haven’t stayed here at all in two years?” Vincent shrugged and went back to cleaning. “Where have you been, then?”

“I have been busy, Yuffie.”

“Busy with _what_?” Yuffie threw her rag at the bucket, sending up a splash of water that soaked the sleeve of Vincent’s shirt. He turned and gave her a look, one eyebrow raised. “Oh…” she bit her lip and looked away. “But still, you didn’t come home at all for two years?” She thought about her room upstairs, kept clean despite the state of the rest of the house, and wondered what he would say.

“I stayed a few times when I was passing through the area,” he said carefully. “But never long.” He muttered something under his breath and started scrubbing the floor with renewed energy.

“What was that?” Yuffie leaned closer to him. “I didn’t catch that last part.” 

His shoulders tensed and he stared up at the ceiling for a moment, then said slowly, “It was not home without you here.”

Yuffie grinned, a feeling of hope and something else starting to flutter around in her chest. She tackled Vincent from behind with a bear-hug and laughed. “I missed you, too, VinVin! Even if I didn’t remember you most of the time! But don’t worry, I definitely remember you now!” She felt Vincent relax, and heard him chuckle.

_Everything’s going to be okay now_ , she thought, hugging Vincent tighter.

 

Of course, that was before they heard back from Zack and Aerith.

 

**_Keep your ey-eyes open_ **

**_Keep your ey-eyes open_ **

**_Keep your ey-eyes open_ **

**_Keep your ey-eyes open_ **

**_Keep your ey-eyes open_ **


End file.
